Intersecting Orbits
by DsrtSnst
Summary: NASA loses a ship near hostile territory and the SeaQuest crew is called in to help. Yet when they arrive they discover that one of the scientists may have connections with the SeaQuest and her past, but her loyalties are questionable.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first published fanfiction and my first time using , so I'm still learning and things may change as I figure stuff out later on. I don't really have any reason to the madness of when I post and how much I post except that is the amount that I got finished looking over and decided to publish at that time. I will try to make part/chapter breaks somewhat in the order of common sense, but I'm taking three para-law classes right now so busy is my life right now.**

**Right now this will probably be rated T for some language and I may have to go to M (although it would be like the movies where they don't know if it should be PG-13 or R so they just go with R to cover their butts.  
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**And I suppose I should put the warning in that I don't own _SeaQuest_** _**DS****V **_**or anything else I may randomly reference ****that is obviously not original creation such as music, books, or movies etc. I'm not making money and would question the sanity of those willing to pay for my ramblings.**

"What do you mean it's falling out of orbit?" Two figures walked quickly through the echoing hallways, one being a very angry woman.

"The last reading we got was as if something hit it, and hit it hard, but there was nothing on the scope. Nothing should have been near the ship and there were no ground launches from anywhere that could have reached it." The woman's companion, an older man said trying to keep up.

"Where's it coming down?" The woman swiped her ID badge at double doors, slamming one side open.

The pair walked into the massive control room of the International Space Agency's Russian Command Center. People hurried around the room or typed at their control stations, tension on their faces and palpable in the air.

"Somewhere between Hawaii and the New Philippines. Best guest is near the tri-border of UEO, Macronesia, and Chaodai territories." The man looked at his tablet computer with a frown at the new trajectories being fed to it.

"And I thought we would have an easy recovery. Somebody get me Director Cain on the vid-link. NOW!" The woman was hardly imposing in her thin five-foot five inch frame, but her voice could have scared Genghis Khan.

"Mars, no yelling at me, this is not my fault." A man, silver-haired and glasses perched on his nose, sat with the NASA logo behind him.

The woman, her tanned face red with anger, took a deep breath.

"P-Orion is hitting the drink in five minutes, and not in a friendly neighborhood. Best estimates are 700 miles from the tri-border in the Pacific, could be closer." Mars was looking slightly on the calmer side.

"NOAA has a ship that can be in the area within a day, there is already a jump ready for you out to the ship. But if it splashes down, you're looking at some of the deepest water out there unless it hits an atoll. And we've got a storm coming in." NASA Director Benjamin Cain stated, being handed a file from someone just off screen.

"What ships do we have to pull the ship up with then?" The woman identified as Mars watched the trajectory projections on a screen next to her.

"P-Orion is landing in UEO water, the only ship in the area outfitted to make that kind of recovery is the _SeaQuest_." Cain drew out the last word almost as if he did not want to say it.

"NO! No no no. Anything but the _SeaQuest_. I don't care if we have to pull _Alvin_ out of the Smithsonian and take six hours to drag up each piece, I don't want that ship there." Back to being red faced.

"Mars, this one is not your call. The UEO has agreed to loan the _SeaQuest_ as long as you make sure to talk to your people about not causing any trouble."

"Ya, well, Bourne has a pretty large financial stake in this little operation, he won't get in the way." A hint of an Australian came through with the anger.

"We have splashdown. Five hundred miles from the tri-border." A technician yelled out across the control room.

"Get on the plane, play nice, and bring our ship back. Just think though, if it survived, you may be one step ahead in testing now and can possibly start manned missions soon."

"Heh." Mars cut the link with a snarl.

"Guess it's time to pack eh doctor." The man that had entered the control room with her said.

There was no response as the woman stared into space, biting her thumbnail in thought.

"Doctor LeConte." The man snapped his fingers in front of her.

"Ya ya." Doctor Mars LeConte waved off the man, then stormed out to grab her bags for the Pacific Ocean.

"Great, scientific babysitting." Captain Oliver Hudson mumbled as he disconnected the vidlink between the Wardroom and UEO Headquarters, and turning to head to the Bridge.

On the bridge of the _SeaQuest_ the crew was quietly going about their business. With no emergencies to attend and the Macronesian/UEO border quiet for a change, there was no need for hurried work.

"Captain on the Bridge." Commander Jonathan Ford announced, catching Hudson coming through the Bridge doors out of the corner of his eye, saluting.

"As you were. Helm adjust course." Hudson typed in the coordinates at his Captain's post, sending them to Helm.

"Adjusting course, aye sir." The helmsman on duty replied, setting to work.

"Sir?" Ford asked.

"Looks like NASA dropped one of their useless expensive toys into the Pacific and we are to go help them fish it out of a deep water canyon while making sure everyone plays nice. This ship of theirs crashed right near the tri-border." Hudson explained loud enough for his crew to hear.

"NASA, long time since we dealt with them." Ford inhaled, crossing his arms across his chest, watching the new course of the SeaQuest as it headed north.

"They are requesting a communications officer to be on board the surface ship to help coordinate efforts, I'm sending Lt. O'Neill. Piccolo and Henderson too."

"May I suggest Ensign Wolenczak too, he does have a scientific background, act as a liaison." The XO cautiously suggested.

"Piccolo, Henderson, O'Neill, Wolenczak, you will be getting some sunlight soon. Go back your bags." Hudson watched as the named crew left their stations while their relief took over. "Babysitting." Hudson mumbled one more time before leaving the Bridge back in the capable hands of his XO.

The _SeaQuest_ had made speed towards the crash site, although they were not the first to arrive. The wreckage had appeared to land fully within UEO territory and already a NOAA salvage ship had arrived, pulled back into duty from their route back to home port in Hawaii. Another research ship from the Scripps Oceanographic Institute was coming from the south, rigged for deep ocean floor survey equipment to map the wreckage. On the other side, hovering just across the border, a Macronesian war sub quietly patrolled not far below the surface, it's attention paid more towards Chaodai territory then any aggression towards the UEO.

On the NOAA surface ship _St. Helens_, the away crew from the _SeaQuest_ had already arrived and been shown to their quarters, which were far smaller than even the enlisted quarters on the massive submarine. The crew of the surface ship had been very accommodating and friendly. What had been the biggest surprise though, was to find Nathan Bridger already on board. Tony Piccolo had found his former Captain lounging in the small mess hall with a cup of coffee and a computer, it didn't take long for the rest of the crew to join them, although Lucas entered hesitantly.

"Captain, it's so great to see you." Lonnie Henderson hugged the older man as he stood up to greet the crew.

Captain Bridger warmly returned his former Lieutenant's embrace.

"What are you doing here Captain?" Lucas asked quietly.

"Apparently I was called in on special request, something about one of the project leaders needing someone who could help with the debris pattern or something. I was at least in the same ocean, so sent Michael back home with the nanny. It's good to see you kiddo." Nathan saw a quick look of pain in Lucas' eyes when he mentioned his grandson, the ever present reminder of why Nathan was no longer on the _SeaQuest_.

"Hello." The group heard Tony talk under his breath, his attention turned toward the other side of the mess where the hot drinks were.

There pouring hot water for tea, a tall, long-legged woman stood with her back to the group. Milk chocolate skin was barely covered by a loose tank top and Bermuda shorts, long soft black hair was pulled back but still fell well below the shoulder blades. Grease covered her once white tennis shoes and khaki shorts. Noticing the sudden silence in the room, the woman slowly turned her head to stare at the crew staring back.

"Ummm, hello." The woman said with a very soft accent.

The crew suddenly realized they weren't blinking and uncomfortably looked away, all except Tony.

"Tony Piccolo, _SeaQuest_, so nice to meet you miss…?" He was almost a gentleman in extending his hand to her.

"Oh, the _SeaQuest_ crew, very nice to meet you all. I'm Doctor Lucy Nunn." Lucy extended her hand first to Tony then the rest of the crew.

"Doctor of?" Lucas asked, almost eye to eye with the woman's five foot ten frame.

"Oh sorry, medical. No no no, not one of the science nerds. I'm a medical officer for the Orion-Mars Project. Not that I'm going up or anything, just making sure our guys are fit and not going to have their heads explode in new suits or something. I'm sorry, was I rambling? I ramble." Lucy darted her dark brown eyes down to her tea in embarrassment.

"We were told what crashed was unmanned." Captain Bridger stated at Doctor Nunn, wondering why they would need a doctor to treat, well, nothing.

"It is, sort of. You'll get the full tour later, but we've got data down there that will tell us what the entry and splashdown would do to a person." Lucy took a sip of her hot tea, backing off as she found it still too hot.

"I would think drowning would be what happens to a person." Lucas remarked, still having not left behind his teenage snark.

"Wolenczak right?" Not without a bit of attitude in her own voice.

"Yes." Lucas said, suddenly apprehensive.

"Ya, she warned me about you." Before Lucy could say anymore a crew member ducked his head into the mess hall.

"Yo, Luce, the helicopter's two minutes out." The young man then ducked out of the door way as quickly as he had come in.

"Well, you boys ready to get the whip?" Taking her mug of tea and long milky brown legs, Lucy Nunn headed for the outside upper deck.

As she left, Tim found himself the first crew member to turn and leave, falling in step with the doctor.

"Your accent Doctor, Australian?" Tim quietly asked in his normal manner.

"Got a good ear, most people ask me how London is in the winter." She laughed and smiled at him. "Left a long time ago though and I think the time in the states is weeding out the Crocodile Dundee in me. You know my cousin and I used to watch the _SeaQuest_ come in and out of dock at Pearl. Beautiful ship, not that I'm really into that, my cousin was the one who dragged me when she was in town. I'm doing it again aren't I?" Lucy squinted back at Tim as they exited out of the ship onto deck, the thump of a helicopter not far off.

"Oh no, it's not a problem. Is that where you moved to after Australia, Hawaii?" Tim looked out at the horizon trying to spot the incoming helicopter against the glare of the sun.

"Yep. Grew up in the Outback on a cattle station, but part of my mom's family comes from Hawaii. Decided that was far better then dirt and cow shit." Lucy put a slender hand above her eyes, spotting the incoming chopper. "Tim, right?"

"Yes, ma'am, communications officer." Tim couldn't believe she remembered his name.

"Explains the good ear. And no ma'am, call me Lucy. Really nice to meet you, especially since we'll be working together, sort of. I seem to be the only body on this rust bucket who can work proper communications!" The last part was yelled towards the bridge of the ship. "Hey Max, you didn't put poor students on board with her did you?" Lucy turned towards another crew member in cargo pants and an old looking NOAA shirt.

"God help them if they did." Max called back as the chopper landed but did not shut down.

The helicopter itself was large, an executive type, NASA's logo decorating much of the side doors. As a crew member jumped out and opened the door, the people standing on deck could see the upholstered seats and interior, it was no military jump jet for sure. Three people jumped out, two young men and one woman, all looking in their early twenties and quite haggard. As they looked around trying to get their bearings not sure where to go, Max stepped forward minding the blades above his head to give direction. As the four cleared the area, a fourth figure slid from the chopper. Unlike the three before, the woman who stepped forward held an air of knowing exactly what was going on. What was most shocking though, as she placed her military cover on her head, was the red and black dress uniform of a high ranking Macronesian officer. Grabbing her bag from the door, the woman walked forward as the chopper crewman jumped back inside and the chopper took off, heading east.

As the woman approached, her eyes remained hidden in the shadow of her cover, but a frown could be seen on her darkly tanned face. A few stray hairs from her dark hair tightly pinned above her collar blew in the tropical ocean breeze. The _SeaQuest_ crew watched as she ignored them, walking towards the civilian crew members. Whoever she was, the insignia of high rank on her collar made them uneasy. The woman could not have been passed her mid-thirties, yet she held rank of Colonel in the Macronesian Naval Forces.

"Dear God! You let them off alive!" Max yelled to the woman, his tall thin frame leaning against the hull.

When the woman got within reach of the young man she stopped, eyeing him coldly.

"And who says I'm going to do the same for you?" Her accent was soft, barely even there, a hint of Australian undertone with American scorn.

"Ya? Whatcha think you're going to do to me huh?" Max pushed off from the wall, his frame overlooking the woman in uniform.

"Throw you over with an attitude like that." She dropped her bag, squaring off with the man.

"You mean like this?" Suddenly Max swept the Colonel off her feet jogging towards the railing.

Everyone from the _SeaQuest_ stared in horror thinking an international incident was about to occur, but instead the woman screamed in mock terror, her cover flying off her head and onto the deck. She grabbed the railing as Max jokingly heaved her towards the water, but held on tight.

"Oh come on you two! No injuries please!" Dr. Nunn shouted towards the pair now with all feet firmly planted on the deck. The woman who had minutes ago looked completely displeased with life was laughing, her brown eyes gleaming with delight as she piggy backed on Max back to the group.

"Well hello to you too cuz." The two embraced warmly, Lucy a good five inches over her cousin.

From here the crew finally had a good look at this stranger in their midst. She wasn't merely tanned, but rather dark in complexion, although no one could guess her ethnicity. Her black hair was tide up in French braided pigtails, the ends wrapped in the large bun above her collar that had been hiding under her cover. But if the two women were blood related, their similarities were lost amongst their differences.

"I have got to make a couple calls and get the hell out of this monkey suit." The woman unbuttoned the top of her high stiff collar, rolling her neck around with the new freedom.

"Perhaps introductions first." Nathan Bridger spoke up walking down the deck. He had held back a few minutes as the others had gathered on deck when the chopper had arrived.

"Dr. B, I didn't think introductions were needed, or have you forgotten us NASA thorns in your side." She spoke back, a devilish smile on her face.

"I was talking about them." Nathan smiled back at the younger woman.

"You two know each other?" Piccolo was starting to think he was the only one who didn't know this woman amongst them.

"Everyone, this is Mars LeConte." Bridger introduced, sizing up the woman who had only been a teenager the last time he had seen her.

"_Dr_. Mars LeConte. I'm in charge of this shindig. Max, why don't you give them a tour before we get going. And get her off this boat." Mars LeConte pointed to Lonnie Henderson, and with that, slipped into the dark interior of the ship.

"Wow, I've never seen her kick someone off that fast, you must have done some big bad. What's your name?" The deckhand Max turned to Henderson.

"Lt. Lonnie Henderson." She squeeked out, not sure how to react to the sudden assault.

"Ha! No wonder. Honey, you best get off this ship fast or hide in your bunk the rest of the time. Good luck with them Max. Hey Cuz! Wait up!" Lucy Nunn yelled behind Dr. LeConte, leaving the rest on deck.

"You sure have yourself a reputation. Come on, I'll give you the VIP tour, all ten minutes." Max turned walking down the deck, the SeaQuest group following.

"LeConte? As in…?" Lucas looked at his former Captain.

"Yep. You just met the only child of one Professor Tobias LeConte." Bridger replied.

**Alright there's the beginning...more to come of course, just don't know when. Let loose the reviews, just remember, it's my first time so be gentle.**


	2. Chapter 2

"How long will this take?" A small portable vidlink had been set up, sitting precariously on the edge of the top bunk, Mars LeConte leaning against the wall only feet away from the bunks in the cramped quarters, the stern face of President Alexander Bourne staring back from the small screen.

"There is no way to tell. The main wreckage is spread out over a huge area. We'll be diving on the main fuselage in the deep trench fist then work our way backwards on the debris tail. If we're lucky, whatever caused the breakup will be with the main debris and we can be done in a few days, if not…" Mars replied.

"Just remember you have obligations here first, and this needle in a haystack search will not interfere if it begins to take longer then expected. And I assume I don't have to caution you about being aboard with UEO members?" Bourne said the acronym with such vile that if words could kill, he would have taken down the UEO years ago.

"Of course not." _Since you just did_, the woman thought.

"And just because you will be on a civilian vessel, remember, you do still wear that uniform." Bourne signed off before he caught the roll of the younger woman's eyes.

"Don't forget you still wear that uniform." A voice from the bottom bunk directly under the vidlink mocked.

Lucy Nunn slid her long legs out from under her to the floor, scooting out into the dim light of the room. She had been quietly sitting well out of view the entire time.

"Ha!" Mars began to quickly unbutton the dress uniform and strip down, grabbing for the shorts and tank top next to her cousin. "Too bad he can't remember we aren't married anymore."

"Too bad you married him in the first place." Lucy replied back with a wry grin.

Mars just looked at the other woman with a glare before throwing the tank top she was about to put on at Lucy. Lucy caught it as it hit her face then threw it back, both women smiling.

"Come on cuz, I hear dinner calling." Lucy stood up, stretching her long thin frame.

The two women headed for the mess hall, heading out into the open air that was cooling off for the night. Mars slipped on an old, baggy MIT sweatshirt, more to ward of the cold of the metal interior of the ship than the tropical breeze of the South Pacific night. Tonight at dinner the entire crew of the NOAA ship would eat together and have their first crew meeting on the task at hand, finding what brought down the P-Orion. The rest of the crew and passengers of the _St. Helens_ slowly began to trickle into the mess, pick up their food, and take seats. The crew of the ship itself was a mix of basic shipboard crew of deckhands, engineers, and officers, along with a smaller compliment of long-term scientists that handled the equipment and labs onboard. They spread themselves out over the mess, mixing with each other, talking with others they hadn't seen in the past hours while at their stations. In one corner huddled the graduate students who had come on the helicopter, and in another, the _SeaQuest_ crew.

"Alright people, lets get this started." Captain Margaret Ellesworth stood up, hushing the crowd. "Most of you already know what we're doing, but I'll let Dr. LeConte tell you all the details. Doctor." The Captain of the _St. Helens_ sat back down to her food as the other woman stood up, lifted her tray from the table top, then sat down where her tray had been with her food in her lap.

"Ok everyone, some of you I've had the pleasure of already working with, some of you I just can't get rid of." Mars looks over where Max is sitting, a slight chuckle runs through the people. "Sorry about the overcrowding, now that we've added a few fresh meat grad students and the UEO's finest, we're up to forty-seven crammed into a space meant for forty. So…hopefully we can make this a nice quick trip. Three days ago around oh-five-hundred hours local time, the Prototype-Orion, or P-Orion, sensors registered an impact before losing orbit, and breaking up over the area we currently occupy. We are here, along with two other NOAA ships expected to arrive tonight, to pull what we can of the main fuselage up, and see if we can determine what caused orbit failure. As many of you know, the P-Orion is our test run from the future Orion-Mars mission in 2040, and if we can prove that the new design, under normal circumstances, would have been a success, then OM moves forward. This is my baby boys, so don't frak it up. Questions?" Mars shoved a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.

"What about the fresh meat?" A scientist asked.

"One of them is an engineering intern and one is mapping, so it will be up to you lead guys to decide what to do with them."

"And the other one is mine, so I better not see any hazing going on because I need them in working order to analyze the data from the drones." Lucy Nunn warned.

"What's the plan of action?" Asked another crew member.

"You guys have already been mapping out the debris field for us and one of the other ships coming tonight will finish up. Then we'll dive on the main debris, pull up the cockpit and pull what we can from that. If we can't find out what caused it to go down, we start working to the other end of the debris tail until we find what we need. Once we get the main body up on deck though, it will just be us out here, so swap movies and porn magazines with the other ships while you can." Captain Ellesworth said from where she was dumping her dirty dishes and tray.

It appears to be all the NOAA members need to know, anything else they can learn as they go, and the crew return to finishing their food or heading off to bed or stations. The mess hall for the most part emptied out, and the quiet of night with only a few on watch crept over the boat along with dark night and stars high above. Morning would come early, before the sun even made an appearance again, and bunks were filling up. The _SeaQuest_ crew headed off to their small bunks, all four in one tiny cabin, the previous occupants rearranged to other quarters so the group could stay together. Nathan Bridger had been offered slightly larger quarters, but he followed his old crew to their cabin.

On the way they passed another small cabin, a closet practically and the door was still open. Inside they could hear the laughing of male and female voices, and as they passed by there was no hiding the large bottle of tequila being passed around Mars LeConte, Lucy Nunn, the kid named Max, and another female crew member. Tim caught the eye of Lucy, who immediately downed the equivalent of a shot from the bottle and bounded for the corridor.

"Tim!" Lucy called out behind the crew. "You want to go for a walk on deck? Someone said there might be some glowing plankton, or shooting stars, or mermaids, or something cool tonight." Lucy was obviously trying to hint that she would come up with anything to get him outside, not that she really needed to try.

Tim O'Neill looked at the rest of his crewmates as if asking permission, then with a hard nudge in the ribs from Tony, headed back the way he had come.

"Sure." The two headed back out to the deck, the rest of the _SeaQuest_ crew smiling at each other as they kept going forward.

"Is that the one with the glasses?" They heard a high-pitched female voice well on its way to a hangover squeal from the room they had passed. It was followed by a muffled reply and then the three remaining voices in the room erupting in laughter.

Once in their own cabin and the door closed, the _SeaQuest_ crew silently stared at each other, not sure where to start. Finally Lucas broke the silence.

"Did you know Captain?" Lucas looked at the man who had once been like a father to him.

"Are you talking about Mars in general or that she would be here?" Bridger sat down on the bottom bunk next to the younger man.

"Both."

"Scott Keller used to talk about his goddaughter Mars from time to time. I never actually knew though that she was Tobias's daughter, not until we were back. She had used a different last name apparently so she wouldn't be seen as riding her father's tailcoats. Did not know that she was in the Macronesian military however, just that she was the one building the new ship for the next manned Mars mission." Bridger rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Ha! I thought she looked familiar!" Tony exclaimed from a dark corner, the glow of Lucas's computer illuminating his face.

"Did I say you could use that?" Lucas glared at his bunkmate.

"What Tony?" Henderson quietly spoke, she was unnerved by a Macronesian soldier so close to her.

"Kawailani Po..Pohai…Pohaikealoha," Tony stumbled over the pronunciation, "big wave champion surfer. She was a cute little thing from Hawaii, never knew why she didn't go pro." Tony turned the computer to show a much younger Mars, probably around fifteen or sixteen, on a surf website.

She was classic Polynesian beauty. A bright blue bikini covering just enough of her to be tasteful for her age, long black hair loose and wavy with salt water hung to her waste as she held her board on its tail, her body positioned just slightly provocatively to entice the main demographics of the surf magazine she was on the cover of. No doubt Tony had been one of the many in that category. In the background was imposed an image of a massive wave, around fifty feet heigh that Tony informed the groups was the wave known as Jaws in Hawaii.

"Ok now I'm very confused, why is a surf champion wearing a Macronesian uniform, conducting a search for a spaceship?" Lonnie looked at the men in the room.

"Oh…her." Lucas looked at the picture on the screen suddenly aware he knew her. "I never met her, but we sure knew who she was at Stanford. There was talk about this thirteen year-old who was getting her Ph.D. at MIT in aerospace engineering. Professors said she was going to change everything, then there was nothing from her soon after she supposedly got her degree." Lucas scowled, grabbing the computer from Tony and furiously typing.

"From what I understand, Mars decided she didn't want to go academic, wanted more of a normal life then being seen as a child genius. Then a few years after the _SeaQuest_ disappeared she showed back up at NASA proposing a new design for the next manned vehicle to Mars, used her father's last name, and became the golden child of space. Should actually be thankful to her, what Deon Enterprises has taken control of in the ocean, her control of anything outside of the atmosphere has kept Deon forcibly out of the same area." Bridger explained.

"But she still is one of Bourne's soldiers." Lonnie pointed out, that if Bourne controlled Deon and LeConte, it didn't matter which one of them controlled what territory.

"Mars Kawailani Pohaikealoha LeConte, born January 3rd, 2000, age thirty four. Mother, Elizabeth Kealoha born 1983, deceased. Father, Tobias LeConte, born 1981. That made him what, eighteen, nineteen?" Lucas looked up from what he was reading.

"And her mom seventeen. No wonder why things were quiet on family connection." Bridger suddenly understood. A teenage father, no matter how brilliant, was bound to find disapproval at some point in his career taking care of an infant child.

"Undergraduate in engineering by age nine from University of Hawaii, worked straight through to P.h.D in aerospace and aeronautical engineering at MIT. No papers published between 2016 and 2019. Whoa…." Lucas trailed off.

"What?" Bridger asked.

"Lieutenant, United States Navy, 2018 to 2021. Dishonorably discharged for threatening a superior officer with a deadly weapon, one month brig time served before discharge."

"Does it say why?" Bridger proded.

"No other details on the event. I would have to do more digging later. Nothing more from her from June of 2021 until 2025 when she joined the Australian Navy. One child, son, born 2022. One spouse, divorced…Alexander Bourne." The last two words barely escaped Lucas's mouth as he trailed off in disbelief.

There was only silence and questions unasked. Was there something more to the woman's presence on board the ship? Was it purely scientific endeavor driving her? How close was she still to the President of Macronesia or had their relationship ended well before he had become the dictator of the South Pacific? And just how much did she know about the _SeaQuest_ and its ten year absence, her own father and his absence?

"Get some sleep for now, something tells me it will take much longer to uncover anything more." And just as Nathan was preparing to leave, Tim O'Neill came into the cabin with a sheepish grin.

"Your new girlfriend's cousin is the ex-wife of President Bourne." Tony blurted out with little finesse.

"What!" Tony said, obviously that had not been part of their discussion on deck.

"Did the doctor tell you anything?" Lonnie bore in, as far as she was concerned now, Mars LeConte and Lucy Nunn were part of her worst nightmare and enemy.

"No we just talked, little stuff. The only thing she said about Mars was that their moms were sisters and she moved with her family to Hawaii from Australia when Mars's mom and step-dad died in a car crash when she was thirteen. Lucy's mom and dad took care of the younger brother so he didn't have to move to Australia. That's it. Could tell you plenty about Lucy though, and I guarantee she isn't working for Bourne. No love there for sure. Did say it causes tensions in the family." Tim looked flustered, why couldn't he catch a break with women, now he may have to give up on this one because she may have a conflict of interest.

"Just be careful Tim with what you say." Bridger patted Tim on the shoulder trying to offer support, then walked out to head to his own bunk.

Nothing more was said, but as Tim started to climb into his top bunk above Lonnie, he saw her look of disapproval directed clearly at him.

Morning came bright and beautiful over the South Pacific waters, not a cloud in the sky or even the breeze that had been present the night before. Crew were already up and moving well before sunrise to get the mapping sleds into the water and prepare the deck for loading wreckage as it came up. The science staff themselves didn't need to be out on deck until later, allowing the earlier staff to use the heads and mess hall before another wave of people needed to use them. While some did look a little on the rough side this morning, all were present and working smoothly.

* * *

><p>Deep under the water, the <em>SeaQuest<em> was in position, its Sea Crabs helping to map the wreckage and would later help connect what was left of the ship to cables to be brought up to the surface ship, thus the reason why O'Neill was requested to communicate between service ship and the submarine, along with the other ships in the area. It was work that everyone had done before in some form or another except the interns that had come on board the day before, and they were quickly being broken in. It was rather mundane work as mapping equipment was taken over the site over and over again in sections, cables slowly lowered, piece by piece of the wreckage was brought up. It had become clear that except for Tim's communication skill and Nathan's understanding of how currents would effect the debris field, the rest of the _SeaQuest_ crew was merely there to make sure Mars LeConte didn't do anything suspicious while in UEO waters. By the end of the first day the main portion of the crashed shipped had been prepped and would be brought up early the following day.

For dinner the crew didn't eat all at once since there was no meeting and people drifted in and out as their schedules and preferences allowed. The _SeaQuest_ crew had been sitting together for a few minutes, discussing their day, when Lucy walked up to their table.

"Have room for three?" Lucy wasn't really asking anyone else, only Tim.

"Sure, I think we can make room." On Tim's cue the rest of his crew members began shifting their chairs and Lucy brought over a few more to add to the table, then promptly sat down between Tony and Tim.

"Really Luce?" Mars LeConte spoke from behind, standing with Max, trays in hand.

"Oh come on, good for you to be sociable once in your life." Max nudged the older woman with his elbow.

The group quickly picked up a conversation to learn more about the three non-_SeaQuest_ people. Tim was more then happy to finally fill in his friends on what he had learned about the woman he was smitten with the night before. It turned out that Lucy's mom had been five years older then Mars's mother, but the cousins were just a year apart, Lucy being the elder. Their moms were Hawaiian and Maori descent, and Lucy's milk chocolate skin came from her father, an Australian Aborigine. The family had owned a large cattle station for generations in the Outback, but when Lucy's aunt had died in a car crash, the family left the station with managers and moved to Hawaii. Lucy herself was an accomplished surfer, although not the big waves that Mars risked life and limb on. She had taken extra classes and summer courses to graduate high school early and enter the US Navy with her cousin for two years, after which she went on to medical school and had immediately gained entrance into the Orion-Mars Project.

Mars herself was amicable and open to everyone but Henderson, they assumed because of the Spindrift incident in which Brody had been killed. She never talked about the war or any other connection to Macronesia. She knew Max because she had dated his older brother when he had been at MIT and had taken to the younger boy as a second brother. Her own brother was a fishing tour boat captain back in Hawaii, ten years her junior, a successful business man. Her parents had never married, and even before Mars had been born, her mom had taken to a young Marine from Hawaii stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They married after he returned, injured in a road side blast, but one of the lucky ones who returned in tact, physically and mentally to go to work for Fish and Game on the islands protecting marine wildlife.

Lucy's mom and aunt had been professional ballet dancers as teenagers, and it was a tour that had brought Elizabeth to Hawaii, meeting her father who had been there working on the telescopes high on Mauna Kea The rest was history. As for the incident involving her discharge, she openly admitted that she had wanted to become a fighter pilot so she could later fly her own space shuttle missions. The Navy had promised her such, but then stuck her in research and development, and when Mars discovered they had tried to steal her design and take credit, she pulled a gun on the Admiral involved in the project…in front of the President of the United States. NASA and apparently some private companies stepped in saying that if anything more then a discharge was done, they would stop providing planes and satellite launches for the military. Boeing wanted the dollars that her designs brought in and that wouldn't happen if she was in jail. It was decided between the crew that Mars either had a lot of balls, or was just a little crazy in the way some geniuses got.

After dinner and most of the crew on ship were off duty, the _SeaQuest_ crew discovered the difference between military boats and civilian ones. Alcohol quickly emerged, even though it was technically banned from NOAA ships, and the party began. Out on deck, under the stars and on calm seas, any sounds of waves against the ship were drowned out by the loud music blaring anything from Dixie Chicks to Bob Marley and Led Zepplin. They knew how to party. As soon as the tequila emerged so did a round of singing Jimmy Buffett, someone who's songs they would hear often over the course of the mission as he was one of LeConte's favorites. Tony was more then thrilled to join in the dancing, and he had the attention of more then a couple women when he started teaching how to swing dance to "Jump Jive'n'Wail". When the first slow song came on, Lucy led Tim to open deck and wrapped her arms around his neck. When chants of "dance, dance, dance" broke out from those who knew Mars and Lucy, fast Tahitian drum music was put on and the two showed that their mothers weren't the only professional dancers in the family. Finally, late in the night the music cut off and crew disappeared to their bunks. The night however, would merely be the first of just about every night on the ship. All hoped that the next day would be a day to party out of celebration for finding the answers to what brought the P-Orion when it was raised from the dark depths of the Pacific.


	3. Chapter 3

It had originally been thought that the fuselage would be pulled up by the third day on site, but it kept catching on a deep canyon overhang. Three days later they had finally been able to move the ship into position without more damage being done, and began to slowly raise it up. Mars was back to being a cold commanding figure, barking out orders as the chunk of metal was slowly and carefully lifted from the great depth to the surface ship. Her eyes remained glued to the camera monitors from the SeaCrabs as they followed the cables up. When the P-Orion wreckage was close to the surface, those who could, walked out on deck to watch it rise.

"So what is the deal with this baby of yours Mars?" Nathan Bridger asked watching the first dark shadow come into view below the water.

"The Orion is going to be a completely new spacecraft. The shuttles were amazing engineering marvels in that they could be reused over and over again, but as everyone knows, one chink in the hull upon reentry and the whole shuttle went. Plus they couldn't land and take off on their own power, they were just gliders really. And the capsules like we took to the moon and Mars had a lot of wasted components, were one time use, and again, no control for reentry as our friend Scott found out."

"Your diagrams I saw of Orion looked about the same as the shuttles though."

"Sort of. I've designed it to lift off with fuel rockets like the old shuttle did, to conserve its onboard fuel. But it is intended to be able to land on Mars, offload crew and supplies, reenter orbit on its own, and when time comes around, go back and get her crew."

"You talked about chinks in shuttle armor, there are some major storms on Mars to cause damage to a hull."

"That's what we were suppose to be studying. I designed Orion in layers. If the outer layer is damaged, the rest under should survive. The ship can literally pull itself apart by layers in event of an emergency, get rid of the damaged sections first and leaving the fuselage in tact with crew safe to glide in or do a water landing with some control. We were actually going to crash the ship anyways to test the breakaway sections, only in more controlled circumstances. DO NOT FRAK UP MY SHIP!" Mars yelled at the crew as there was a bang of metal against metal as the wreckage rose above water.

"I don't think a little ding is going to make a difference now." Lucas said, coming up with the other. He was rewarded with a glare.

"When you have a billion dollar project under your care and not some little personal craft, let me know." She then stormed off to dictate lowering the ship on deck.

"Battle of the geniuses eh Luke?" Tony slapped his friend on the back.

Once the fuselage was secure, the search for what caused the loss of orbit continued. Lucy Nunn pulled out the black boxes and sensors that would tell her how crew would have faired in the reentry and headed to her labs. Mars LeConte began to scan every inch of the ship, getting 3D images to put into the computer. Yet there was no sign of what caused the crash. The P-Orion did however indicate that the ship had done exactly what it was designed too. The fuselage was in great shape, with very little interior damage except from flooding and had live crew been present, they would have blown hatches and escaped before fully sinking. Once the data from the black boxes was uploaded it was decided that the _St. Helens_ would leave on her own to follow the trail back towards the tail that had crashed first, closer to Chaodai territory.

The other ships began to head away, off to go back to port or continue on their original explorations. The _SeaQuest_ itself had been called away to a possible skirmish much farther north along the UEO-Chaodai border, its crew left surface side until the two could meet again. It was, with how lax the surface ship was on protocol, a vacation to the UEO officers. _St. Helens_ and crew began moving northeast, closer to the borders of Macronesia and Chaodai, but no concerns were present as all had been quiet except for much farther north.

On the second day out from where the fuselage had been pulled up, the debris field crossed into shallow water near tiny islands and atolls. The crew could easily scuba dive and sift through the small debris in person instead of towing equipment and trying to find clues on the screen. It did not take long to find what they were looking for, something odd in slightly deeper water.

"I want all divers in full wetsuits. I don't care how warm that water is, I don't want OSHA finding out you got tetanus because you thought you could go skinny dipping." Captain Ellesworth warned, although she would be more then happy to let crew go for a swim as they pleased later.

Nathan Bridger was surprised to see Mars literally bounce up to him, her long black hair in two braids, her deep brown eyes overjoyed.

"Want to do the dive?" She clasped her hands together like a little girl.

"Um, sure." Before he could say anything more she was already skipping over to the dive locker.

Tony himself took this time to enjoy the scenery, for it was the first time sense a magazine cover had been produced so many years ago that he got to see his "surf goddess", as he was now calling Mars, in a bikini. He only got a minute, but her tanned, dark skin against a black sporty bikini like the type some triathletes wore was good enough for him. It was obvious Mars worked out, short she may be, but she was built solid, although the faint lines of stretch marks from pregnancy could be seen in the right light. It was the tattooing that drew most peoples' eyes though. Intricate Tahitian tribal tattoos ran in two lines, both starting out in the small of her back, curving away from each other around her rib cage to end between her shoulder and breast. The only other mark clearly visible was an ugly ragged scar on her side between hip and rib cage, a story that had not yet been told.

Lucy Nunn was on deck again, escaping from the labs below in which she had been working on the readouts from the drones inside the crash. Had it not been for the couple miles of water that would have drowned live people and crushed them, the readings showed that actual people probably would have survived, a great relief to all involved in the project. Now she was catching air and monitoring the health of the divers. Tim of course sidled up along side and began talking as the two watched the five divers assigned for this dive get dressed.

"I didn't know you dived." Nathan had joined the divers and was getting dressed alongside Mars.

"Please, I was swimming before I was walking. My step-dad used to take me out with him for work, when he was making sure people weren't poaching, no whales in nets, that sort of thing. As soon as I was old enough, he taught me to dive. Not to mention you don't grow up an island girl without surfing. Shame to live on the islands and never see what's below right?" She stopped briefly to turn around and let Nathan lend a hand putting on her BC and tank.

"So why go into space if you're such a fish?"

"What, you think I want to go up into space to find snails and see how pretty the stars are?" Nathan turned so Mars could hike his BC unit up onto his back.

"Figured you might have had your head filled with ideas between Scott and your dad."

"Scott wanted to go be the first to put his feet on another planet to further mankind and say hi to little green men, my dad just merely liked imparting his wisdom to the fascinated kids in his classes. Me, I just want the adrenaline rushing of lighting a few thousand gallons of rocket fuel under my ass. When we were beginning to build the first prototype of the Orion, Uncle Scott said I should just do the capsule design, one hell of a rush plummeting through the atmosphere with no control. Told him I'd fine with that, but my crewmates maybe not so much." Mars said with a wry grin, remembering her godfather and mentor.

"When did you start building the Orion?" Nathan asked shocked, Scott would have been killed on Hyperion long before any designs were even started let alone being built.

"About three years ago give or take a month. Why?" She was beginning to be worried by the look of confusion on Dr. Bridger's face.

Nathan didn't know what to think. Had Scott survived? Nathan himself had never been told who had survived, he had found out, with every other member of _SeaQuest,_ who was still alive when they had all been found. Those that didn't come back were presumed dead. But if Scott was alive, why had he not sought out Nathan? Did Scott know about his son? Nathan took a stab in the dark.

"Do you know where Scott is living now?" Nathan knew it was the wrong question as soon as he saw the younger woman's face fall.

"My god, no one told you. Dr. B…Scott died about seven months before you and your crew reappeared. It was a sudden heart attack while he slept. The doctors don't even think he woke up during it. I'm so sorry no one every told you." Mars's face was full of sympathy and sadness, she had been sure someone would have alerted Nathan Bridger to his friend's death.

Suddenly Nathan was filled with guilt. He had just assumed Scott had died, but had never even bothered to see how his family was. After all, Scott had left months before the _SeaQuest_ had been taken. Did his family wonder why he had just taken off, did they see any connection with Scott's disappearance and the _SeaQuest_?

"How did Marcy take it?" Nathan remembered long ago sitting in hopelessness talking on a microphone with Scott stuck in the _Wayfarer_, promising to watch out for Scott's only daughter and new grandchild.

"She was devastated of course. But she handled it well. Has two kids now, a little boy named Joseph Scott. Actually, you want someone who followed their dad, that girl is going to be head of NASA's Public Relations soon enough. Lives near Kennedy, you should go visit sometime." Mars was happy that they could now talk a little more upbeat for the moment.

"I think I will. How about Jennifer?"

"The ex-wife? She came for the funeral, but I'm sure you know she was remarried while Scott was on Mars."

"He told me when he got back, said she didn't want him showing up and not holding his peace."

"That's Scott." And with that, Mars slid her full-face mask on and hobbled over to the dive platform.

The divers all crowded onto the dive platform that then slowly lowered them the twenty feet into the water. The ocean here, so shallow and close to the reefs was a beautiful blue so commonly found around the islands from Hawaii to Tahiti. The debris that had crashed here had sadly done some damage to the reefs, but NASA was already working with conservation teams to come out and clean up all of the debris and place coral nurseries in the damaged areas. While they all new where they were heading, the divers spread out to ensure nothing was missed following the wreckage on their way to the point the object laid at. When they got to it, there was no mistaking that this was what they were looking for. Mars guessed that it had punched well into the ship and lodged into one of the other layers of the ship opposite of where it entered. As the ship broke up on reentry it had broken free with the tail section early on, thus hitting the water much earlier and farther out from the fuselage, which had been the last thing to hit the water. The object couldn't have been more than a foot across, a small smooth sphere.

"All this over something so small?" One of the ship's regular divers said as they hung in the water over it, making sure they couldn't detect any dangerous radioactivity, explosives, or leaking biologics.

"It's not the size up there that counts, but the speed. When a paint chip can crack the outer window of the shuttle, what do you think this thing going seventeen-thousand miles can do?" Mars replied through her comm unit, getting the all clear to get closer to it.

Mars tilted herself from horizontal to vertical in the water column, lowering herself down to her knees, the object between her legs. She tried to pick the object up, and while it didn't seem overly heavy, it was enough weight to be awkward enough to pick up in her position.

"Alright guys, I got this, if you want to head on over to the reefs, get an estimate of the damages, feel free." Mars said, beginning to slide a heavy nylon net under the object and letting air from her tank out of her second regulator unit to a collapsed float that was slowly beginning to lift the object as it filled with air.

"Most of the divers started heading towards the shallows where the reef lay, after all, they were mostly oceanographers and biologists, and the reef damage was more in their field.

"Not going with them?" Mars asked as she recognized Bridger still by her side helping to negotiate the sphere back to the platform.

"Just as curious to know what it is as you are."

The duo swam the net carrying its cargo to the lowered platform, secured inside a box that would allow for decontamination if needed, and placed themselves on the platform, giving the call to the surface to be raised up. As soon as the platform broke the surface, Mars had her gear off and was looking at the object in its box. It was too small to be any type of actual satellite or even a weapon system, at least space to earth weaponry.

Once it was cleared of any hazards, the water was drained from the box and the object exposed to the air in the lab. The innards of the thing already had been through x-ray, and it seemed relatively simple. It would have to be cracked open and any chips removed to see what were on them, at which point LeConte was happy to have Lucas Wolenczak onboard. However, they didn't want to crack it open and break it by accident until they could possibly figure out anything about its surface. Lucas had figured out how to attach some electrical leads to the smooth surface and they were slowly pulsing energy through it in various spots and different strengths to see if there was any reaction. Then it happened, the object disappeared on the table.

"Oh my god!" Mars yelled in surprise and delight.

There was a slight shimmer on the table, but no solid object anymore, yet the leads remained exactly where they had been placed. Mars took her hand and slowly lowered it down to where the object should have been. Her hand touched solid, about a foot above the table, then her palm began to follow the invisible contours of the sphere.

"They did it, whoever this belongs to, they did it." Her voice was in awe, a kid lost in a candy store.

"Did what?" Lucy asked.

"Completely cloaked an object, from radar, from sight. No wonder we didn't see this thing coming at our baby."

"Ya, but why would someone aim it at the P-Orion?" Lucas asked.

"I don't think it was aimed, I think it was just wrong place wrong time. Two objects trying to be in the same space. Intersecting orbits. Whoever owns it may have mastered the technology, but I guarantee we are dealing with someone who isn't used to putting things into proper orbit. I don't think they wanted anyone to know this existed, and slamming it into a NASA spacecraft is not a good way to stay subtle." Mars was now holding it up, a good twenty something pounds, and as she swung it around, she could see everything right through the sphere.

"How many countries though have that type of technology, but not be part of any space program to know better?" Lonnie Henderson asked.

For the first time on the entire mission, Mars smiled at Lonnie.

"You have a former Chaodai on the _SeaQuest_ right?"


	4. Chapter 4

**I'd like to thank Lynn for keeping up the encouragement in the review section. I do hope others are reading and enjoying too. **

* * *

><p>"I had heard that the Chaodai were attempting to find a method of cloaking subfighters and other weaponry. Any attempts have been unsuccessful though, otherwise my fighter would have been one of the first to incorporate such technology. However, subfighter pilots were never given information on specific experiments and can only tell you that yes, they were looking into cloaking, but no, they had not been able to cloak fighters." Lt. Haiku Kimura said matter of fact on the vidscreen that the NASA and <em>SeaQuest<em> crews were sitting in front of.

"But they were working on cloaking technology at some point?" Mars asked.

"Yes."

"They may have taken to trying it in space because it's a vacuum. Nothing else acting on it such as water or even dust particles and clouds. Figure it out up there, start adapting it for down here. Thank you Lieutenant." With that the vidscreen went black.

"Think they know we have it?" Tony piped up.

"I think they know we're looking for something. Hopefully they just let us be hoping we don't find it." Bridger replied.

"Lets keep putting teams in the water though, I don't want anyone who may be watching us realizing we found something. Make it look like we came to the end of the line with nothing. And if that's if the thing really belongs to the Chaodai." Mars leaned back in the chair she was sitting in, stretching out her arms and back.

The people in the conference room nodded their agreement and began filing out.

"Dr. B, can I talk to you in private." Mars said, still sitting while everyone else was walking out.

Once everyone was gone, and the door shut, Nathan sat back down.

"I need you to help me make sure this gets back to NASA. It could be a game changer. The last thing I want is our respective confederations fighting over it. NASA is part of the International Space Agency, which means if given to them, it becomes accessible to all belonging to the ISA, including both Macronesia and the UEO. Little bit more of equal opportunity then one or the other getting it. And I know that your crew is back reporting to Captain Hudson already what we have pulled up." Mars was grim, as if she just wanted the new found object gone.

"Of course, although the UEO won't be happy with that either." Nathan commented.

"Ya, well neither will my ex-husband so we can both be yelled at." A small grin crept across her face as Nathan uneasily shifted in his seat. "You didn't think I knew you were checking up on me? Next time, just ask." She stood up and walked out, leaving Nathan smiling to himself.

Mars LeConte was a force to be reckoned with, and it made Nathan wonder what else she knew.

* * *

><p>It did not take long for the <em>SeaQuest <em>crew to learn what happens on the _St. Helens_ when the mission was pretty much over. As soon as they called the day over at lunch, the sign up sheets for the few surfboards stored away were filled up, and crew were lowering themselves on the dive platform into the clear water for swimming.

"You won't do it. You won't do it." Max was chiding Tim and Tony who were peering the thirty feet down to the water from the higher vantage point of the bow.

Two streaks of color when flying by the three men as Lucy and Mars, decked out in surf shorts and rash guards jumped the side, crossing their arms and legs in mid air, and hitting the water. Now they had to jump or else be shown up by "the girls" or as most of the NOAA crew called them, "the twins".

"Throw your glasses down Tim, we'll catch them!" One of them yelled up.

Max immediately followed the girls into the water, use to the height and bored that the other men weren't jumping. Tony was peering over when Lucas came up trying to instead push him, a dangerous proposition by the height, and both luckily recovering in time to hit without too much of a belly flop. Finally Tim went in, breaking the surface to be met with his glasses and a kiss from Lucy as she latched onto him, both going under again. Lucas had already taken off with a cute redhead promising to teach her how to surf.

The surfers had found an excellent beach with relatively good breaks, but nothing huge, a good place for even the beginners. A tiny sand bar away from the surf beach lent itself to a sunning spot and some chairs others had swam out with. A cooler of beer, hidden somewhere in the ship just for this time, had been thrown in on a float and was frequently being visited.

Lonnie stood on the deck, looking out at the area that had become a personal playground to fourty people. Nathan came up, seeing she seemed somewhat gloomy.

"Want to talk about it?" Nathan realized he had not talked too much with Lonnie beyond their general conversations at meal times and such, nothing one on one at least.

"About what?" Lonnie was jumpy.

"How bout that cloud hanging over you?"

"I don't know. It's just, just, she…"Lonnie trailed off.

"Ahhhh." Nathan was beginning to understand.

"I don't remember what happened to us, you know, up there. But I do remember before, and I definitely remember the Spindrift incident. I still have nightmares. It's like she was sent here just to remind me." She bent over, leaning her arm and elbow on the railing, her chin in her palm.

"I've seen the looks she gives you, and yes, I'm sure there is animosity there, but I'm not even sure Mars knows why she holds it. Lucas did find out that Bourne was a major financial backer of the Orion-Mars project even before he was President. Could be that Mars simply wants to keep you at a distance to protect her project's funding. I don't think she was sent to torment you though. She's a good kid who may have put herself in with the wrong people to get her project going, but from what Lucas found, she's a military scientist, not out to take you down." Nathan gently rubbed Lonnie's back in support and comfort.

"Sometimes I wish Dr. Smith was still with us, someone to talk to."

"So do I." Nathan quietly whispered.

"I miss them, Jim, Wendy, Miguel. You. I miss them all and it's like no one wants to talk about any of it. Just move on, deal with it on our own." There were tears in her eyes now.

"How bout this, I'll come back with all of you to the _SeaQuest_, and anybody who needs to talk it out can, and you can take all the time in the world, whatever you need."

"What about looking for your son?"

"I think I've neglected too much, including my crew. I think it is time I maybe take a break, do right by you guys. But until then, go have some fun. You may be getting mean looks, but you're certainly not being stopped from joining in the fun." Bridger smiled.

Lonnie wrapped her arms around the older man in a warm hug.

"Thanks Captain Bridger." Lonnie wiped away the moisture in her eyes and took off to find something to do.

The hours went on with the crew rotating between the surf, sand, and sun and the cool interior of the ship. There had been a moment of panic when a small tiger shark had swum into the area and everyone piled onto the beach or the sandbar. All except Mars, who stood still up to her waist in the water, watching the creature swim by, clearly visible under the surface. Lucy was begging for her to get out, just a few feet from the bar, but Mars stayed unflinching, transfixed. The young tiger shark kept on swimming, uninterested in the woman in the water. Once the shark was well out of sight, the party picked back up.

As the sun was beginning to get closer to the horizon and the sky began to change colors, Mars and Lucy found themselves catching the last few waves on their own. Everyone else was either tired and headed in for dinner, or was leery of being eaten by the shark seen previously in the day. But for the two women, surfing with predators under their board had always been a fact of life, whether it be the great whites of Australia or the tigers of Hawaii. To them, there were worse ways to go. The girls were hanging back, simply sitting on their boards watching the waves build ahead of them and break towards shore.

"So you and…?" Mars drew the shape of circles around her eyes, indicating eyeglasses.

"Tim." Lucy finished, as if Mars had forgotten his name.

"I know his name! It's just, he's not your usual." It was obvious she was trying to pick the polite words.

"If you mean he's not a crack addict, crashing motorcycles, or trying to maintain his teen years by being in a grunge band, then yes, he's not my usual. Seems like you would be happy."

"I am, it's just…"

"He's UEO." Lucy didn't let her cousin finish.

"_SeaQuest_." Mars corrected.

"I could date the Secretary-General of the UEO himself and you wouldn't say a damn word, but I have interest in one communications officer from that boat and you freak out."

"I'm not freaking out, but don't you think it would just be sort of a conflict of interest right now?"

"NO! And exactly which conflict of interest are we discussing? The family business or the other family business?" Lucy turned her board back towards the ship and began paddling back with strong strokes.

"Both."

"Ya, well, this damn war can't last forever." Lucy yelled back.

Mars took a few more moments looking at the changing sky and breaking waves.

"No it can't." She said to herself, turned around, and followed back to the ship.

* * *

><p>For the fist time since the <em>SeaQuest<em> crew had arrived, there was no partying at the end of the day. For the most part the tired out crew ate their dinner, then went to climb into their bunks after slathering on the aloe vera. The _St. Helens_ was travelling once again into deeper water towards the last few miles of debris, a light breeze again blowing across the open ocean.

Nathan Bridger couldn't sleep like everyone else; he was still thinking about his son, about Scott, about finally sitting down and talking with his crew, especially Lucas and Lonnie. After looking at the glowing numerals on his watch, Nathan climbed out of his bunk at two in the morning to get some fresh air. He wasn't alone on deck. Lying on the deck with a pillow propped under her head and cigarette between her lips, pajamas still on and staring at the stars, was Mars LeConte.

"Ever give thought to giving your liver a break?" Nathan said, coming to sit next to the woman and spotting the bottle of whiskey.

"Two things I inherited from my father: my brains, and an iron-clad liver." Mars smiled, blowing smoke towards the sky, then grabbing the bottle and offering it the Captain.

Nathan had thought his days of passing around the bottle were long gone with his college days, but took the proffered bottle and took a sip. It was not top-shelf, but it wasn't bad either.

"What's that?" Nathan pointed to what looked like white paper next to Mars.

Mars felt around by her side, grabbing what turned out to be a photograph and handing it to Nathan. It showed Mars with a young boy, maybe around ten or so, sitting on driftwood at twilight on a beach. There was no doubt that the boy was her son, the two looked so much alike.

"That's my boy, my pride and joy, Keali'i." Mars said, glowing with a smile of motherly pride.

"He looks like you." He handed the picture back.

"Thanks!"

"Is he back in Australia?"

"No, he's been living with his my dad's parents in Rwanda for a few years. I'm not usually in any one place for very long, figured he needed something more stable." Mars sat up, putting her cigarette out.

Nathan remembered hearing that the Great Lakes region of Africa had become an incredibly stable place after its horrible past, quite peaceful with a flourishing eco-tourism industry. Although why Mars's grandparents lived in Africa was somewhat of a question, but then again, he lived on an island off the Yucatan of Mexico.

"What about his dad?" Nathan said before he even though about the words.

"Ummm. His dad isn't really in his life. Which is fine by me, he's not really the kid type ya know."

"But his dad is in your life." It wasn't a question.

"Can you see him in Keali'i?"

"No, just a guess. You were right, Lucas was doing some research. You're presence kind of surprised us. Lucas pulled up the birth certificate, said father unknown, although your son was born before you two were married?"

"I've known Alex since I was discharged from the US Navy. He was in the Australian Senate, I was looking for business support in my own aerospace company. Well you can guess, wild child twenty-two year old, ambition on both sides." She just shrugged as if it was nothing then took a very long swig from her bottle.

"You know, I've got a grandson not much younger than your son. Want to see a picture?" Nathan was hoping to change the subject.

"Of course!"

Nathan pulled out from his shirt pocket the most recent school picture of Michael. He watched Mars take it and then saw something flick across her eyes for just a second, some emotion he could not grasp at. Then a smile, almost like the one she had when talking about her son came across her face, that motherly pride.

"He's going to look like his daddy." Mars commented and handed it back.

"Yep."

"You know I met Bobby when I was twelve, think he was my first crush."

"You met Bobby?"

"Yep. It was some science forum in Honolulu, he was there with you. Me, Luce, Marcy and her boyfriend-now-husband, and Bobby all went out on the town while the big boy scientists sat in on their boring talks. Something about Bobby having to go with us so Marcy and Kyle couldn't lose us and sneak off."

"Bobby was declared missing at sea two months after that."

"Scott was visiting us in Boston when he got the news. Marcy cried all night, so did I and I only knew him for a few hours."

"That was a really rough ti…"Nathan didn't have a chance to finish before Mars stuck her hand up indicating for him to be quiet, her head tilted as if listening to something.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The engine, the sound just changed, like we're dragging something."

Nathan listened, he could hear just a slight change, something that could only be heard after being around boats and engines for years. There was a reason why _SeaQuest_ was his boat, and he was really beginning to understand how Mars could have a Ph.d. in an engineering field at thirteen, she had a gift not with the math like Lucas or Tobias, but with the hands on physical aspects of knowing a ship inside and out.

Without saying anything, Nathan stood up and walked to the railing of the deck, looking down, and slowly began walking the length of the ship. Mars quickly followed, scanning out into the open ocean, looking for a shadow against the sky or any type of lights. Perhaps they had merely gotten caught in long lines from an illegal fisher.

"Do you see that?" They had reached the other side of the ship and Nathan was pointing down into the water where a small amount of light leaked up from the depths, barely perceptible, it could have easily been mistaken for bio-luminescence.

"We're being boarded. Shit!" Mars went tearing into the interior of the boat just as the sound of pulse rifles and screaming could be heard from the lower decks.

Nathan took for the bridge, but as he came across the boarding ladder and zodiac speed boat attached under the bow of the ship, he knew it was too late. As he looked up, hoping to see the bridge crew calling for mayday, the bridge window was splashed with red in the dim lights of the cabin. Hell had come the _St. Helens_.

* * *

><p><strong>This may be the last chapter rated "T". I don't know if I'll have to go to M or not (it would be for violence). <strong>


	5. Chapter 5

_**So life has been insane the past few months and haven't had much time to write, and when I have I've been dealing with the next two chapters just not happy with them so this is like the fourth go at it. I'm keeping it at a T, there is violence and death, but I don't feel it's graphic enough to warrant an M. The next two chapters were also written as one, just felt like they needed to be broken up for an easier read.**_

"HIDE!" Mars was screaming into the dark cabin where Lucy and Max were bunked as they were torn from their dreams by her scream and the ones that followed from below getting closer and closer.

"Wha-?" She heard Max groan, slow to wake.

"Get yourselves out of here and hide." A scream below deck must have punctured the last remaining vestiges of sleep because Mars could here Max moving and pulling something heavy, and then heard Kirstiana, their bunkmate, crash to the floor.

"What about you?" Lucy cried out, but Mars was already on her way to the lab, rushing barefoot, already seeing the first of the fleeing crew coming from the lower decks.

Max, Lucy, and the younger girl Kirsti, were greeted by bleeding and terrified crew running towards the upper open decks. It was a turkey shoot and too late to hide, with the first soldiers appearing behind the fleeing crew. From the top decks there was more screaming, and the barking of orders mixed with pulserifle blasts. The three clung together, staying put instead of fleeing and becoming a target. It was only a matter of moments before the soldiers reached them, helmeted and in black plain uniforms. They didn't shoot at the trio, but once they reached Max, the butt end of a rifle was slammed into his chest and the blast end pointed at the women. They were herded up onto the deck with the others in the morning air, Max unable to catch his breath.

Lonnie Henderson had been having nightmares, and it was the nightmares that kept her from going into a deep sleep, the nightmares that allowed her to hear the first rifle shot. Well before the civilians in their section had awakened, the _SeaQuest_ crew was up and moving, yet they had no weapons. The crew made it to the open air of the deck, only to find Captain Bridger on his knees, hands behind his head, and a Chaodai officer with a rifle pointed at his head. The crew immediately dropped into the same position, although Tony had to first grab Lucas to keep him from running towards the Captain and getting shot.

Below, Mars made it to the labs, although she knew she didn't have much time, or many hiding places. She had managed to grab a dual laser cutter and welder on her way, something she had simply spotted and grabbed, more out of consideration for using it as a weapon than anything else. In a duffle under a bunk that she had just left, were two loaded handguns, two more clips of bullets at the ready. No one knew she had them, and in the rush to get to the little cloaking object, she had abandoned the guns in their spot. Once in the dark of the lab she grabbed the sphere, pulled aside a solid back table and realized what she would do. Cutting away a square in the bulkhead large enough to fit the sphere, she found what she was looking for, a hollow space where wiring ran, and it was big enough between the bulkhead and the next to fit the contraband. The Chaodai weren't here to destroy, they were here to find, otherwise the ship would have been sunk to the ocean floor by now. Tucking the object into its hiding place she replaced the square, slicing and burning her fingers on the edges, and welded it back in place, then slid the desk back. The smell of burning metal filled the lab, but it probably wouldn't occur to the soldiers what had been done, no evidence remained and the square would be cool if they found it, just a patch from some old repairs.

It was just after moving the desk back that Mars heard the soldiers coming her way and she bolted to try and make it to open deck, but was cut off by a figure in the corridor. Out of reflex she slashed at the soldier with the welder hoping to at least cause a burn. The soldier instinctively moved out of the way of the object, giving the woman a chance to run a few feet before a heavy object swung into her face knocking her flat on the ground. Mars tried to get back on her feet, but the blood, nausea, and inability to breathe from her nose only let her crawl a few more feet on her hands and knees before a foot came into her chest, knocking her onto her back once more.

"Colonel LeConte, doesn't speak highly of the Macronesian forces that one of their own can't even put up a fight." An older Chaodai soldier stood above the younger woman as she moaned in pain, her eyes beginning to blur.

* * *

><p>Mars could barely see anymore through the blood and increasing swelling, but just before she was knocked out by another blow to the head, she turned in a vain attempt to escape the blow. Where she fell sat one of the inflatable life rafts in its hard shell storage container. She hoped they would think she had been trying to make an escape. Until they found the sphere that was no doubt belonging to them, they were staying on the boat. If found though, there was no doubt they would sink the boat and all aboard.<p>

"Come on kid, wake up. Doctor, I think she's coming to." Mars heard the voice as if in a fog, bright lights caused her headache to explode and she moaned, closing her eyes again. "No no no. Come on Mars, come back to us." It was Bridger.

"Mars come on, I need you to sit up." Lucy was there, slowly raising Mars from her side where they had placed her so the blood didn't flow down her throat.

"Where are we?" Mars groaned.

"The conference room. The others were taken to the mess hall." Tim explained, helping Lucy prop Mars up against the wall.

"Max?" Mars was trying to catch her breath, finding she couldn't breathe through her nose

"With the others."

"Bodies." The world was spinning around Mars.

"They killed twenty-four, including the bridge crew and Captain Ellesworth. It was a blood bath." Lucy explained.

The world was slowing down, although the headache remained. Mars raised her hand to her nose, wincing at the sharp pain with the slightest touch. It was no doubt broken. Somehow her eyes had not swollen completely shut, that was good, and she surveyed the rest of her company. The Chaodai had placed the _SeaQuest_ crew, herself, and Lucy into the conference room. Lucy she found out had treated those she could before requesting to treat the few taken away and was now locked in the conference room with them. The crew was in good shape, no signs of injury, and Lucy as a medical doctor had been treated with some respect, probably in case any of the Chaodai became injured.

"You were the last one caught." Tony stated.

"They're tearing this boat apart looking for what's theirs. No mayday got out from what we can tell." Nathan said, grabbing a pitcher of water left in the conference room and helping Lucy clean the blood off of Mars. "Somebody will have noticed we're on the move and not in the right direction by now though."

"We'll be over the Chaodai line by the time anyone gets to us and they know it. If they find what they're looking for though, they'll be gone and we'll be at the bottom of the ocean." Mars stood up only to sit back down right away in one of the chairs in the room as things began to spin again.

Everyone heard the hatch door begin to open and the commanding officer of the Chaodai boarding team stepped through with several others, weapons at the ready.

"Colonel LeConte, it amazes me that President Bourne has managed to gather such a large portion of territory when he surrounds himself with pretty little dress up dolls instead of actual soldiers. And if this is the best the UEO has to offer then there really is no question as to why UEO territory continues to shrink." The Commander spoke, he never gave his name, the _SeaQuest_ crew would never in fact learn his name or any of the others of the Chaodai party.

"Because hiding away in you're little confederation and taking over civilian vessels somehow makes the Chaodai superior." Mars said smugly, laying her head down on the table as if these soldiers were just a temporary annoyance.

"The UEO isn't going to sit back while you kill and kidnap UEO civilians let alone military personnel." Nathan Bridger stood up facing the Chaodai.

"Actually they will. Your Secretary General McGath has already been notified of the situation. He recognizes that any action on his part would cause the immediate deaths of the survivors and would hardly look good for upcoming elections. The UEO will sit by unable to wage yet another war on another front." The Commander was cold and matter of fact. The entire situation was a mere order to be carried out in the same Chaodai way as all other missions.

"So you'll let the survivors go?" Henderson asked.

"No." The Commander answered.

There was silence as the implications sunk in. The Chaodai had bluffed the UEO into inaction, making the Secretary General believe all would be safe if the ship and the new command were allowed back into Chaodai waters. However, the Chaodai were still going to sink the ship and all aboard knowing that even the UEO would be unable to retaliate.

"And what of Macronesia?" Mars said, almost a sense of hope in her voice that her confederation would be more willing to take action.

"President Bourne is aware that you are alive, although not in what condition." The Chaodai commander nodded towards one of his soldiers who quickly unlocked the computer system to access the vidlink. "Your presence provides a challenge and a blessing. Whoever controls you controls one of the greatest minds out there, not something a man like Alexander Bourne would be easily willing to give up. Also not something he would easily be willing to lose. He just needs more…persuasion."

As the vidscreen changed to the image of the Macronesian Presidential Office with Alexander Bourne sitting behind a massive wooden desk looking gravely, the Chaodai commander pulled Mars from her seat, a large fixed blade knife going to her throat as she was placed in front of the screen. A thin line of red began to form at the edge of the knife.

"President Bourne, I guarantee she will not survive if we are not allowed to cross into our waters. While she would be a great asset to our scientific endeavors, her survival is not the most important thing to us at this moment."

As the two stood there in front of the screen, Nathan studied the two. The commander was as cold and emotionless as he had been sense walking into the room, but then he realized so was Mars. There was no flinching from pain as a small trickle of blood flowed from her skin, no begging in her eyes for relief or freedom. Mars LeConte stood perfectly still, her breath even and deep. She looked young standing there in pajama shorts and a tank top with no shoes on, her long black hair waving its way down to her waste. But in her eyes was just a cold calmness to match the Chaodai. And then the deep brown eyes shifted to the side, catching his gaze, a look that said everything was under control, a feeling he certainly did share.

President Alexander Bourne looked at his ex-wife on the screen. She was bloodied and bruised, but held her demeanor in perfect form. _Good girl_ he thought to himself while trying to let his face show some anxiety for the woman's safety. If he appeared too confident in the woman's survival, the Chaodai might begin to question her presence. Even if the Chaodai did manage to take her off the ship, he was sure it would not be long before she returned to Macronesian waters. Mars LeConte had come to him with a raw talent that he had invested much time and effort to make her worthy of his inner command circle. No, there was nothing to fear from these annoying trespassers, so long as she didn't step in front of pulserifle in some misguided need to save the civilians.

"I guarantee there will be no involvement from Macronesia to hinder your way. The civilians are not Macronesian citizens and the Colonel's survival is my only concern. Colonel LeConte, I would suggest you take whatever measures necessary to stay alive. President Bourne out." The screen went black, leaving the reflection of the room and its occupants in place of the Macronesian seal.

"Now then, where is the satellite?"

"What satellite?" Mars felt the pressure from the knife ease and she was allowed to rub her throat, a superficial wound that would stop bleeding soon.

The Chaodai Commander looked at the woman, then quietly pulled out a small handheld computer and pressed a button.

Mars felt searing pain rip through her shoulder, a hot branding iron that caused her stomach to churn and tears to come to her eyes.

"Nano explosives, precisely injected into your muscle tissue while you were unconscious. They will not cause any permanent damage, however we can continue to detonate indefinitely which eventually the mind simply cannot take."

"You're just going to kill us anyways." Mars squinted through the pain that was beginning to subside.

"Perhaps it would help to tell you that now that your President has agreed to remain at bay, you will be awarded with survival. The others no, but again they cannot offer the Chaodai what you can." Again the commander hit the computer pad, releasing a small scream from the woman as she dropped to her knees.

"Stop this, you'll kill her!" Lucy stepped forward only to have puslerifles directed at her.

"I assure you Dr. Nunn that she will be quite alright for the most part. When tested it took over twenty-four hours of continuous detonation to finally cause mortal damage to the test subjects. They had long sense passed the point in which they had given all required information."

"What satellite?" Mars groaned.

"Give up the pretenses now, it had a tracking device on it that went out a few days ago, lasted long enough to give its position however, the same position your ship was over yesterday."

"We didn't find anything. I dove on our debris field myself, there was nothing there but _my_ ship. The water drops off deep in these parts from the shallows quickly, whatever your looking for may have been on a shelf or something, we stayed in the shallows. Although if something of yours did hit my ship I'd really like to know what is was, you know, for future design builds to ensure someone's shit doesn't take out a few hundred million dollars of funding." Another explosion of pain ripped through her lower back, sending shock waves of pain to the base of her neck.

"Colonel LeConte, I'm going to give you a few minutes, let the pain ease so you can think straight." The Chaodai turned and left without another word, locking the crew in again.

"Seems like the only one with a life pass is you...Colonel." The words came of Henderson's mouth with such vile, especially the final word.

"You know what Henderson, Lenore, I'm not the one who gets in trouble then expects others to come to my rescue and even expect them to die for me. And even if I told them right now where it is, they'll take it, wait until their ship picks them up, and then torpedo this boat. So, it's either one by one or all together now." Mars wiped blood from her face, standing up again and glaring at Henderson.

"Says the woman who fraks the most evil man on the planet!" Lonnie yelled back, getting in Mars's face.

"Says the woman who can't even read a frakking map to see where borders are!" Lonnie's body made a loud smack as Mars pushed her into the bulkhead on the verge of throwing a punch.

"Everyone CALM DOWN!" Nathan was starting to see the cracks in LeConte's armor and if she decided to strike out to what he thought she was capable of, he didn't want Lonnie to be the one in her war path.

Mars let go of Henderson and walked over to the small viewport to the outside world in the conference room. She was trying her best to look up at the sky and horizon.

"What time is it?" Tony asked to no one in particular.

"Oh-four-hundred." Someone replied.

"Damn, we are moving fast." Mars was trying her best to see waterline and how fast they were breaking through the water

"We've got two hours before we enter Chaodai territory and not a ship within reach even if someone was going to act." Mars sarcastically said. "Does it count as a mutiny if it's not your ship and the ones in control aren't your officers?" She turned from her vantage point and looked at those around her.

"You're talking taking back the ship, unarmed, and with civilians, against a highly organized military force that took this ship in just a few minutes?" Lonnie aksed in disbelief.

"So what do we do? We ain't got nothing to lose." Tony asked.

"Nothing." With that Mars laid back down on the floor and closed her eyes.

"She's out of her mind. Out of her mind. This is the one time I agree with Captain Hudson that scientists shouldn't be making up military actions. No offense Captain." Lonnie said, strangely calm.

"None taken." Bridger answered.

"None taken here either." Mars raised her hand, before bringing back down to cover her face.

"Mars, why aren't you armed?" Lucy had been quietly watching the tension unfold.

"I am, just kind of left them under your bunk."

"Good place for them."

"It crossed my mind."

* * *

><p>The rest of the crew took what spots they found most comfortable, all mulling over what their options were. They did not have much time to themselves. Half an hour after the commander had left, the hatch was opening once again. Looking outside as the hatch swung open, the sky was beginning to lighten.<p>

"Colonel, I believe your commanding officer gave you direct orders. I would suggest you follow them." Once again the computer was at the ready in the Chaodai's hand.

"Frak…you." Mars stood directly in his face her gaze unwavering with his.

The explosions came quick and in clusters, her shoulders, lower back, base of her neck, even hips were pierced with burning hot fire. Mars fell to the floor screaming, curling up in a fetal position, and then rolling over to deposit the remaining alcohol in her stomach onto the ground. Her vision blurred and even blackened for a few seconds as the onslaught continued. When it was over half a minute later her breathing came in quick ragged gasps, her head felt like it would explode, and nothing more would come from her stomach even as it clenched.

"Colonel?"

"What happens if I tell you?" Mars gasped for air, her vision beginning to come back.

"We'll go make sure it is there, and which point you'll be taken to the sub and for now your pain will be ended. I would warn you though, if you lead us on a chase to find our satellite, such insubordination will require more nanoexplosives to be placed." The Commander stood over her, looking down with the first bit of emotion on his face, contempt. He had no use for weak soldiers and none of his own men would cave so quickly.

Mars met her cousin's eyes. She had caught the meaning too. The current dose of nanoexplosives had been completely depleted. Lucy slowly nodded once.

"If she tells you would you let me check her vitals?" Lucy questioned.

"Yes."

"It's in the biology wet lab on B deck. There is a desk, move it aside and you'll see where I cut through the bulkhead." Mars laid her head back on the floor, rolling onto her back.

"Wise decision." He pointed at his men indicating for them to go with him, leaving one inside and two outside. "Tie her to the chair in case we have to administer another dose."

When the others were gone and Mars had been tied with plastic riot cuffs used the world over, Lucy squatted in front of her cousin, her back to the soldier standing guard and began to quietly look the other woman over.

"Got my back cuz?" Mars said as the pain was beginning to ease, she only hoped there would be enough time for more of it to dissipate.

"Always." Lucy smiled, standing up and walked to Tim, keeping her smile turned from the guard

Mars did not get the time she had hoped for before a call came over the lone soldier's comm. Her body still ached and she felt like she had the worst hangover of her life, yet the soldier was coming towards her with his knife ready to cut the ties holding her wrists to the chair. The hatch was opening and one of the two from outside was coming in.

Tim felt Lucy take his hand, not the intertwining hold of lovers, but a grasp of reassurance and strength.

"Hit the deck." Lucy whispered in Tim's ear as she let go of his hand and began to move forward towards Mars again.

What happened next in the following moments happened before anyone but the two cousins could comprehend. Ignoring the obvious signs that she would be shot for making her move, Lucy stepped forward towards the chair Mars was strapped to. The first soldier was just cutting away the second bond when Lucy moved forward and the second soldier raised his rifle to shoot. Distracted by the sudden movement the first soldier looked towards the standing woman, taking his eyes away from the black haired one sitting before him. He only felt himself lose balance before he died. He did not feel the strong fingers grasp the knife and turn it inwards on his chest, he just felt the sudden turn as he was flipped around and his neck broken. Lucy in that moment dove towards the dying soldier grabbing his side arm and fired at the second soldier. Tim hit the deck as a rifle blast went past his head.

Not even Nathan Bridger in all his years of being a soldier had heard the sickening sound of a human neck being broken by another human being. It was a sound that sent chills down his own spine and spun barbed wire around his stomach. The thought was quickly ended by the following body of the second soldier and another rifle blast as Lucy easily took down the third soldier coming through the hatch. Then there was silence.


	6. Chapter 6

"Jesus Christ!" Tony yelled in breaking the deathly quiet that followed what had only taken a few seconds.

Tim promptly crossed himself. Lucas felt bile rising in his throat. Lonnie simply felt numb. Nathan for the first time saw the dangerous enemy in the young Macronesian Colonel. Only the two women were in motion. Lucy was checking the corridor as Mars was stripping the first soldier of his weapons and body armor.

"Mars, you said you have weapons?" Nathan was beginning to help pull the weapons off the second soldier; they wouldn't have much time before they were discovered.

"Two handguns. Old school projectile weapons, but they haven't let me down." Mars slid the vest over her head and fastened it down, took the man's primary weapon and handed the other to the first person behind her, Lonnie.

"There is probably no more than fifteen Chaodai judging by the shuttle and zodiac they came in with. We could quite possibly take them by surprise if we move fast with these weapons and what you have." Nathan had grabbed the other pulse rifle and was keeping watch at the hatch.

"There is also a shotgun in the Captain's quarters. Ellesworth kept it there in case of piracy." Tony stated.

"How do you know that?" Tim asked.

"It's a small ship, you find stuff out!"

"In other words he got a girl to tell him." Lonnie smiled at Tony.

"What are you thinking?" Mars looked at Nathan.

"We need to get to the other hostages first. Be no use to break out only to have them kill all the civilians." Nathan started to move out into the corridor.

"If we leave the shotgun with Max, he can shoot it. I use to tease him about being a backwoods Oklahoma hillbilly out shooting deer, guess I'm going to have to find something else to tease him about." Lucy said with a bit of a laugh.

"Lets go." Nathan ordered.

Nathan and Mars took point, Lucy and Tony along with Lucas in the middle, and Lonnie and Tim took up the rear with Lonnie's weapon. If Nathan was right and there were at most fifteen Chaodai on the ship, they had twelve to go. At least three including the Commander were retrieving the satellite from its hiding place. There would be soldiers guarding the other hostages and on the bridge, what they didn't know was if there were more down at the shuttle docked with the _St. Helens_.

* * *

><p>The group moved quickly. Briefly Mars and Tony split from the group, running to grab the shotgun and handguns, the weapons Mars had been carrying turned over to Tony. It could have only been a couple minutes since everything had happened in the conference room by the time they reached the corridors outside the mess, but it felt like eternity. By now they could also hear the faint angry shouts from below deck. Lucy crouched with Lucas in a corner, one of the handguns for protection as the others with weapons silently crept upon the Chaodai soldiers. There were five guarding the civilian crew, but none seemed to realize they were being hunted. The moment the report from the handgun sounded though, the entire ship would know the <em>SeaQuest<em> crew had escaped. At the two entrances into the mess, the crew sited on the soldiers, then waited for the crack of a bullet leaving its chamber.

Screams rang out from the civilians, but the five soldiers were dead or mortally wounded with only a couple hapless shots returned. As soon as the few seconds of shooting stopped, Max ran up to the crew.

"Took you long enough." Max said in a mix of anger and relief.

"Would you like to be used as a human shield? Here, make them count, you only have six cartridges." Mars handed over the shotgun from Tony to Max.

"Lucas stay here with one of the rifles too, see if you can hack into their computer systems or something." Nathan still was not used to the young man being in uniform let alone in combat. "Doctor Nunn, you stay here. Tim and Tony-" Nathan didn't have a chance to finish.

"Lucy goes with us, she's a good shot." Mars ordered back.

"Ok, Lucy, you're with Tony. Lonnie and Tim together. I'll take LeConte. We spread out, take different accesses down into the ship, push them to the lowest deck if need be." Nathan observed with some satisfaction as his former crew quickly followed his orders in pairing off in their teams.

"You go with one of them, I'm on my own. I'm going to head them off at the shuttle." There was no more discussion before she was gone, her bare feet silent on the cold metal.

"What about the bridge?" Tony asked.

"Lonnie, Tim, take out the ones in the Bridge first, then follow us down. We have eight down, there are no more than seven to go including the three who went to the labs. Go." They all took off in their respective directions, Nathan joining Lucy and Tim.

* * *

><p>Down below Mars didn't bother to search for any of the soldiers. She simply headed for the Chaodai shuttle docked with the ship at the lowest deck. The Commander would be well on his way having heard the shots fired up above. The Commander was going to learn what it took to earn the rank of Colonel within the Macronesian forces.<p>

* * *

><p>"There's only one entrance onto the bridge, how are we going to get in there?" Tim asked Lonnie as they crouched in the corridor, four Chaodai on the bridge.<p>

"We don't get in there, we get an overloaded pulse-rifle in there." Lonnie was pulling the case off her side-arm, easily finding the circuits to cause the unit to overheat and hopefully explode.

"Guess it's time to let them know we're here." Tim gulped down the lump in his throat, walked up to the closed hatch of the bridge, and knocked.

One soldier opened the hatch, giving Tim enough of a shot to fire and then escape while Lonnie threw the quickly over-loading weapon in and taking cover herself.

The weapon blew, but not enough to cause fatal injury. It was enough however to disorient the soldiers on the bridge so that the two UEO officers could make their way in.

* * *

><p>Nathan Bridger, Tony, and Lucy made for the labs. They had no way of knowing that the three that had gone for the satellite were the last and were well below them. With no resistance at the labs, the three split up and began pushing towards the lowest deck, but saw not a soul except the <em>St. Helens<em> crew already dead.

* * *

><p>The first bit of light had been creeping into the dawn sky for some time, and Mars knew that any minute the sun would make its first appearance over the horizon. She would miss it however, sitting in the shuttle. The Chaodai hadn't even left a guard, so secure were they in having taken the ship.<p>

Three sets of footsteps could be picked out coming into the area that the Chaodai had cut into, mostly a storage area for machinery.

Three shots were fired, the first two finding their way between the eyes of the Commander's soldiers, the third into the chest of the Commander himself. A heavy clunk echoed as their object in a black bag dropped to the deck.

The Commander attempted to breathe in, but he knew the bullet had entered a lung, could feel his breathing becoming more difficult as blood filled the space air should have occupied. Lying on his back, his own blood spreading around him, he looked up at the woman who was bending down over him, her cold dark brown eyes void of emotion. He screamed as she placed the barrel of her handgun into the wound on his chest.

"You are no better than we are Colonel." The Commander finally spoke.

"I don't take a ship full of civilians hostage for a piece of technology. I think that makes me a lot better than you."

"There is an angel amongst the Red Death and she stands before me. I would have shot you at the start had I known. The crimes you've committed in the name of Alexander Bourne will be judged far more harshly than any that belong to the Chaodai."

"There are no angels amongst us, only the gods of war. Besides, the Red Death don't exist so how can you know what crimes I've committed? You do not stand within the inner circle of a man like Alexander Bourne and not know how to survive. I've survived worse than Bourne, I survived Bourne himself, I can survive you."

"You haven't survived yet."

Mars looked down on the dying man, he was beginning to choke on his blood and short, rasping breaths were all he could manage. Mars stood up, and pulled the trigger. No one in the world knew who belonged to the rumored Red Death because no one supposedly had ever survived meeting them.

* * *

><p>More footsteps could be heard moving quickly towards the shuttle moments after the last shot rang out, undoubtedly the <em>SeaQuest<em> crew had been drawn by the sound.

"We're clear down here." Mars shouted out not wishing to accidently be shot.

Nathan Bridger came into view, the pulserifle he carried at the ready, Tony and Lucy following quickly behind. Out of habit, Lucy stooped down to check for pulses, knowing though that she would find no heartbeat on the three Chaodai. Nathan looked at the wounds understanding they were marksman shots. His former crew was well trained and even adept at shore combat, but they were still submariners with limited marksmen training. What he saw was the work of someone who had seen more than just a training range.

"Back to the mess." Nathan looked painfully at Mars. Up until a few hours ago he had seen her has a tough but innocent woman, the brilliant daughter of a brilliant friend. Now he saw something dark lurking under the surface, she was an erratic unknown far too comfortable with violence and blood. She couldn't have looked more different from her farther in that moment he saw her standing over the dead Chaodai, handgun held by her side, looking odd in pajamas and combat vest, and looking relaxed and unconcerned.

Tony followed Nathan wordlessly back towards the upper decks. Mars looked at her cousin, then dropped her eyes down to the black bag on the floor, turned and followed the two men. Lucy was left alone in a silent tomb.

"Turns out the toy soldier had bigger balls than you did. You'll be lucky if there is even Chaodai territory left in a week." Lucy Nunn spoke to the dead, not a bit unnerved by the blank dead stares that were the only answer to her voice. She stooped down, picked up the bag and headed towards open air.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Eventually I'll get to the end...maybe a couple more chapters<strong>_


	7. Chapter 7

_**So I messed up my hand pretty bad, but wanted to get this out even if it isn't perfectly the way I want. Sorry for any mistakes in grammar, when you're typing in an awkward way, certain things just get passed over. Enjoy.**_

* * *

><p>Mars LeConte felt the adrenaline leaving her body and the aching pain return. The Chaodai would never know that she had been the one to kill the Commander they had sent; in fact they would probably believe it had been the <em>SeaQuest<em> crew who had done it. That was fine, let the UEO take credit for it and her involvement stay within the whispers and rumors of the _SeaQuest._ Mars slowly walked to the upper decks, having to pull herself up on the corridor railings at the stairs. Her chest felt tight and breathing was difficult, but if the Commander was right, there would be no permanent damage. Hell, Alex had done worse in the years she had been by his side and current injuries required nothing more than a bottle of tequila and a good dose of painkillers.

The survivors were gathering up on deck and a mayday probably had already been sent to inform whoever was closest that they had retaken the ship. Mars found her way to her bunk and sat down, just to rest for a minute. Noticing the cold creeping into her muscles and bones, Mars found a pair of black cargo combat pants and an old worn black matching jacket. The pants were new, a thin red line down the side indicating the uniform of Macronesia. The jacket was the same material but well worn, patched in a couple places, and a multitude of patches sewn on. Scott Keller had given her a _Wayfarer_ patch that he had worn on one of his mission uniforms. On the collar was the Marine Corp pin that had been her stepfather's. The newest patch was that of the Orion-Mars mission, still stiff and bright. Grabbing one more item, a small bone carved necklace she had taken off for the night, Mars headed back up to meet with the rest of the survivors.

On the way up she thought about the look Dr. B had given her after she had shot the Chaodai soldiers below. It had been a look of such disappointment it broke her heart. True she had become accustomed to the company of death and being the one who let him in the door, but Dr. B himself had been a career Navy man, a soldier, who was in the process of hunting the same men. Had she been a UEO officer would he haven given her the same look? The only difference was she had met them face to face, instead of shooting them from behind. It still did not change the fact that Mars had admired the man for many years as the creator of the _SeaQuest_ and as a good friend of her godfather and disappointment from him cut deep.

Mars blinked as she stepped out into the morning sun, took a deep breath, and did what she always did, put one foot in front of the other and moved forward in life.

* * *

><p>Lucy Nunn was trying to avoid everyone that she could, which wasn't too hard as most were up in the mess, but she heard some voices as a few people ran for clothing or items of comfort through the ship. Quietly stepping into the biology lab, she found a small radio tracker, noted its frequency, and attached it to the sphere she carried. Just as quietly, she exited out onto the open air, checked to make sure no one was around, and dumped the satellite into the deep waters below. Making sure no one had seen, she turned and went in search of Tim.<p>

* * *

><p>Tim O'Neil was shaking. He could not recall ever killing someone. Sure people had died in combat with the <em>SeaQuest<em>, but that was by torpedo and or in the subfighters. Tim had never pulled the trigger on a living being. With shaking hands, Tim crossed himself yet again and said another prayer. He had seen the others come above deck and making sure his crewmates were all safe, went in search of the medical doctor he had fallen for. He saw her coming down the side of the ship, a narrow part of the deck between railing and bridge. She had been looking backwards at something as she walked, but when he saw her turn and lock eyes he broke into a run, practically picking her up in his arms as he wrapped around her and the two held each other in the morning breeze.

* * *

><p>Lonnie Henderson never kept track of how many died at her hand in the various combat situations she had found herself in over the years since joining the <em>SeaQuest<em>. Most of the time things were so hectic she would have never known who fell because of her puslerifle anyways. She did know who had fallen beside her in the years though. Miguel, Wendy, the Macronesian kid, Jim. Today though, it had been none of her friends. She was sad for the _St. Helens_ crew who had died, but she had not known them, they had not been close. Their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, would cry for them, they would be the ones to mourn. But for today, Lonnie would return with all of her friends, Tim, Tony, Lucas, and even Captain Bridger was coming back to the _SeaQuest_ for a time. For the first time in a while, Lonnie felt sure of herself, felt calm in her knowledge that she had survived.

* * *

><p>Lucas felt useless. He had been ordered to stay in the mess to protect the survivors, which had meant doing nothing. He wore a uniform now and yet he was still placed away from danger it seemed. It wasn't just that he had been ordered to stay behind, but he felt upset that Captain Bridger had ordered him. Did the man really still think of him as a sixteen year old kid? He and LeConte had taken charge of the situation, and Captain Bridger hadn't told her to stay behind. Maybe if Lucas could show the man he was a soldier like Mars, Nathan would look more proudly on him, after all, even Robert Bridger had been a soldier.<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan Bridger was getting too old for this. He thought about how he should be on a beach in the Gulf of Mexico watching his grandson run around collecting seashells. Then he thought about how his son should be there with him. Then he thought that if it hadn't been for finding out Bobby was alive, he would probably still be Captain of the <em>SeaQuest<em> and right where he was currently. Nathan had never believed everything happened for a reason, especially after the loss of his only son and wife. No, life was what it was, a random collection of events grouped together for better or worse.

Taking in a deep breath of salty air, Nathan looked at his crew out on the deck from his spot within the bridge. A Macronesian vessel had answered their mayday call and was hours out from reaching their location. Something was bothering Nathan though as he scanned sonar. They had slowed the boat, trying to decide whether to move directly back into UEO waters or parallel the UEO-Chaodai border and move closer to Macronesian waters and the rescue on its way.

Nathan heard someone come onto the silent bridge and turned briefly to see Mars LeConte come in, now looking every part the soldier in Macronesian battle dress uniform, combat vest, one weapon holstered to her hip and another under her arm at her side. She was braiding her hair and securing it above her collar. Suddenly Nathan desperately hoped that Lucas would grow weary of a military life and leave. If Mars was a reflection of his possible future, Nathan wanted more for the kid. No, man. He was a man now. Yet Nathan had already lost one son who he had allowed to walk willingly into combat, he didn't want to lose Lucas too.

* * *

><p>Tony Piccolo sat with his back against the cold metal staring out at the horizon and the sun to the east of them rising ever more above the horizon. It was not something he would ever admit to anyone, but he loved this time of day. This was the time he used to go surfing in Florida, just so he could watch the morning start. If he ever told anyone they would make fun of him, just like the kids had made fun of his reading in school. There was nothing to do now though except wait, so he sat down and watched the ocean and sun move in their ceaseless patterns, currents and orbits. Lonnie sat next to him and he could feel her shiver slightly even though the morning was already warming. Lonnie he knew would understand if he told her, but he never needed to tell her. He wrapped an arm around her like he had with his younger cousin when she had needed comfort. Together the two sat quietly.<p>

* * *

><p>"We're moving south?" Mars asked Nathan as the two stood on the bridge.<p>

"Yes. Figured it would get us to the rescue ships quicker, some of these people need more medical attention then we can give." Nathan didn't look at the woman next to him.

Mars had picked up a pair of binoculars and was scanning the horizon.

"See anything?" Nathan asked.

"No." Her voice was weary, hesitant.

"What is it?"

"The Commander said something, told me I hadn't survived yet."

"You think they would place a ship in our waters? That sub could have made it well into their territory."

"No one would have guessed the Chaodai would do something like take a ship well within UEO waters, placing another ship out here wouldn't surprise me at this point."

Silence fell as they continued to set course for the south. It became awkward with quick looks at each other while the other was looking away.

"I know you don't approve of me Dr. B." Mars finally spoke.

"It's not…it's…"Nathan stammered trying to find inoffensive words.

Mars raised an eyebrow at him.

"You were a brilliant engineer, you could have been head of any aerospace program you wanted. And yet here you are…." Nathan trailed off.

"Being a soldier just like you and your crew? The only difference between you and me Doctor B is the side we're on, and even that can get blurred at times. And tell me Captain Bridger, did you hesitate to pull your trigger? You, who taught battle strategy at Annapolis. You have no higher box to stand on. My life is what it is, and trust me, we all keep our own secrets. You know me by name and by my father, but you do not know me. Just because I'm a genius at one thing doesn't mean that's what I wanted to truly do." Mars was angry and she stood firm.

"And to be at the side of a man who plans to conquer the world?"

"I made my bed and was lying in it long before Alexander Bourne let the world or me know his plans. But like most bedrooms, I guarantee again you have no idea what goes on in it."

"Why did you marry him?"

"Question should be why did he marry me?" She was calming down, sitting in one of the bridge chairs, her feet on the console.

"Why?"

"Because I was the only woman he's ever been with who could protect him in his sleep." Her hand rested on the handgun at her hip. "I've heard every reason why I would decide to marry a man who was over twenty-years my senior and known philanderer. But really it just came down to ambition. We were both ambitious, don't get in our way type of people that could offer something to the other. It was more like a business transaction then a marriage."

"So why stay with him even after divorce, especially if he's not in your son's life?"

"Because I was also the only woman who could kill him while he slept too. Alexander Bourne likes to keep potential problems under a close watch, just look at what happened to Larry Deon. One thing is for sure, Alexander Bourne will never have 'beloved husband' written on his headstone." Mars gave a cocky grin to the older man, and Nathan had to laugh.

The laugh was cut short by a soft beep on the sonar screen, a little dot momentarily appearing. Nathan and Mars fell silent, not even daring to breathe. Heartbeats passed and then another soft beep. Hearts skipped their beats. Then a faster beeping appeared, and a second dot moved quickly forward from the first, straight towards their position

"He was right, we haven't survived yet."

The torpedo was not a direct hit, but hit the twin propellers of the _St. Helens_, sending everyone not sitting flying in all directions as a fireball and smoke shot from the stern of the injured ship. There had been no time to warn of the impact. The ship came to a complete stop, metal screeching and smoke filling corridors and screams rang out and already frazzled crew began to lose their grip on sanity.

"Get everyone into the lifeboats!" Max was shouting, already heading to the boats still secured.

The need for evacuation pulled the crew back together. Lifeboat drills were a regular part of their time on the ships, it was second nature, and the required steps of evacuation gave some sort of order to the erupting chaos.

"There's the Chaodai zodiac too. Get people into it!" Tony yelled as a fire hit something inside the ship and a new explosion rang out.

It was becoming noticeable to everyone at that point that the ship was sinking, and fast. She was taking on water at her stern, the bow beginning to rise from the water along with the entire port side deck getting leaning closer to the water line. With a diminished crew number, the two rafts that went over were not even full and the zodiac had managed to get four people in before needing to be cut loose because of the steepening angle of the bow. Everyone was off except the two inside the bridge in just two minutes.

Nathan could feel blood dripping from his forehead and thought perhaps he might have broken a rib. He had been thrown forward into the bridge consoles first, and then back against the metal hatch closed behind him. Mars lay crumpled on the floor and he thought perhaps she was either unconscious or had finally succumbed to injuries and fatigue and had given up. Attempting to open the hatch as the boat neared a twenty-five degree angle, he found the hatch would not budge. As he tried again, two new hands wrapped around the hatch wheel attempting to add more leverage, but it was no use. Giving up on the hatch Mars moved to the side window, now easier to reach then the forward ones.

The windows were meant to withstand hurricane force winds and debris flown around in such winds, so they weren't simply going to be busted open. However, each of the large windows had emergency release handles that could release the window from its frame. Even these though would not release, the metal buckled with the impact of the torpedo.

"Shit, the impact must have twisted the frames." Mars was yelling as she scrambled for footing in the quickly tilting cabin.

To their left they could see the two large life rafts with the zodiac. They knew not to bring the smaller zodiac near the sinking ship, otherwise they would chance getting sucked in with it. At sixty-degrees tilt, the boat was now quickly sliding backwards in the ocean as it filled with water, the port windows completely submerged as the ship was completely on its side. Mars remembered something from some Asian philosophy book, the Tao she thought, that her dad had liked to read all the time. Something about water being patient and going where men could not. She wondered what the Tao had to say about drowning.

Bracing against the ceiling that was now to her back and a bolted in cabinet, Mars un-holstered her handgun and shot all her rounds into a tight circle on one of the side panes. Placing the weapon back she grabbed the second one, aiming for the same general area, attempting to weaken the strong material used for windows on the ship. Now climbing on the actual metal structure of the window frames she grabbed a fire hydrant and began pounding, but the material held.

Water was seeping in through the hatch and Nathan was following Mars's lead and climbing up the side of the windows.

"Keep firing." Nathan ordered.

"Those were my last rounds."

Suddenly the boat was struck again by another torpedo, and the two were flunk again around the bridge as the boat dropped back level, then capsized completely.

They could not see the sub out in the water that had risen from a deep sea canyon. The water was clear and blue where they were, extending deep below to inky black depths and some of the deepest water on earth. Water was rising so fast now it would only be a few more minutes before there was no air space left. Nathan grabbed Mars, helping to support her as they held to the bolted Captain's Chair on the floor that was now above them. Nathan had in fact drowned once before, but he didn't remember it, yet he was not eager to experience it again. Whatever had kept Bobby from coming back to him, maybe he would come back for Michael now, raise his son right. Nathan only wished he could have found him before he died again.

Mars shook in the chilly water. This was not how it was suppose to end. She wanted to see her boys again, see the man she loved again and have more babies. They had argued about that, whether now was the time to think of having a bigger family or not. Mars hadn't wanted to raise more kids while she was in combat, but now she would gladly have as many babies as he wanted if only to grow old and see them have babies too.

"Not like this, not yet." It was so quiet, the fight gone from her.

The song that began to leave her lips was barely more then a haggard whisper. It was an English hymn, but she sang it in Hawaiian, attempting to find comfort in the language she remembered her mother singing to her as a child before sleep. Nathan didn't understand the words, but then he picked the harmony of the song, the rhythm of it and new suddenly the line she was singing, _in peril on the sea._ Mars didn't get to finish the song as a shadow passed into the waters below them, another shadow streaking out towards the distance where the hidden Chaodai sub lay.

The old Ohio class attack sub rose from its own hiding spot in an underwater trench. The Chaodai sub didn't even see the torpedo as it made it through counter measures and struck its mark. Two more torpedoes left the new aggressor, the Chaodai sub beginning to sink in its death throws to the deep grave below. The shock waves from the three impacts pushed against the overturned _St. Helens_ and she suddenly heaved once more, her bow meeting the sky straight up. Nathan Bridger and Mars LeConte were to receive one last glimpse of the blue sky and bright sun before they slid to the deep trench below.

Nathan held onto the younger woman, the two comforting each other in the time of their deaths as they tilted their heads back for the last few precious pockets of air.

"Forgive me." Mars said, then gulped for air.

Nathan said nothing.

They were in the dark and the cold. Outside the bridge, light streamed into the ocean casting shadows into the depths. Both could feel the depths increasing as the pressure closed in on their ears, popping as they equalized. Then a crack began to spider out from the bullet holes in the window. One crack splintered into another then another, spider webbing across the pane. Swimming to the cracking material, Nathan leveraged himself against the frame, and pushed with all his might against the window.

Suddenly Nathan felt something pushing against him, his mind was becoming foggy, sleep so welcoming…and then he was on the surfacing taking a gasp of air. The zodiac was buzzing in to pick him up, the other rafts only yards away. And next to them the old US Navy attack sub broke the surface, as hatches opened and people began to emerge.

"It's Darwin!" Lucas yelled as he helped drag Nathan onto the zodiac.

"Where's Mars?" Lucy was screaming, not just to be heard, but out of shear raw hysterical emotion.

The surface was calm except for a small disturbance as air and water was displaced from the sinking ship. It felt like forever when suddenly Darwin's dorsal fin broke the surface, pushing the body of Mars LeConte with him right next to the sub.

"NOOOOO!" It became a wail rising from Lucy as Tim grabbed her in one of the large rafts, holding on tight, but Lucy broke loose and dove into the water swimming for the woman being hauled onto the sub's deck.

Nathan looked away from the body, the young Polynesian features blue, her eyes closed. He forced himself to look back, some day he might be able to tell Tobias his daughter had saved him, and the girl deserved a witness to her final moments. The crew of the sub were not military, they were probably smugglers, dressed more like Spindrift, their faces covered to avoid identification. A large man was giving mouth to mouth to the woman splayed out on the sub's deck. Nathan realized the man was a Dagger, tall and lean against the sudden frail body of Mars. Lucy had been hauled up onto the deck and was kneeling next to the man, her fingers taking a pulse. Another man appeared from the hatch in a hurry, running then sliding the last few feet to the others. His features were hidden by a sandy blond beard, sunglasses, and a Boston Red Sox baseball cap. Nathan took a deep breath realizing he was in fact alive, and he would take Michael to a Boston game some day, a team Bobby had been fond of.

And Mars LeConte took a gasping breath, coughed water, fell silent, then another gasp as another breath was given to her. Coughing replaced gasping and the crew on the sub stopped their frantic movements. The man in the Red Sox cap pulled Mars into a sitting position as he collapsed by her, cradling her body to his chest. Lucy Nunn was laughing and crying at the same time. The tall Dagger was being handed a medical bag and was in the process of getting an oxygen mask over Mars's face. Nathan saw Mars turn her head, the mask fogging up with her breath, but he could see a small weak smile directed at him as she gave him a thumb ups sign before allowing her body to be wrapped in blankets and laid back down. Nathan returned the thumbs up. They had survived.

* * *

><p>Whether smugglers, Spindrift, or pirates, the crew of the sub provided medical attention to the survivors of the <em>St. Helens<em>. There was not much that could be done, but some heavy pain medications were delivered, concussions checked, bones splinted, and gashes temporarily closed until stiches could be done. The Dagger and Lucy Nunn had fallen into an amiable relationship of medics treating their wounded. Mars had been moved to the zodiac with Max who watched over as she slept, the oxygen no longer needed, but still wrapped in thermal blankets even under the sun. The survivors had lost track of time, but it had to have been at least a couple hours when the sub crew suddenly withdrew back into the sub and slipped silently into the water and disappeared. Ten minutes later a large Chinook helicopter bearing the Macronesia insignia circled around and dropped two rescue crew into the water. From there it was only a matter of time before the small dot of Macronesian cruiser grew ever bigger and arrived to pluck the survivors, half of the original crew, from the water.

By the time the UEO ships and the _SeaQuest_ had arrived, even the _SeaQuest_ crew were in warm dry clothes and hot food in their stomach. Nathan noted that Darwin stayed with them, swimming around the large cruiser. He had probably been with the _St. Helens _during the whole ordeal. It was a United States aircraft carrier that came to pluck the original _St. Helens_ crew from the Macronesian cruiser, a jump jet would take them back to solid ground from there. Before anyone left though, heads were bowed, and Amazing Grace was played aboard the Macronesian ship. Thousands of miles away it had already been decided that the water was too deep and the area to dangerous to send a retrieval crew for the bodies that had gone done with the ship. Lawyers were already being called by grieving families. Life was moving on.

Nathan watched as Tim O'Neil wrapped his arms around the lanky doctor and gave a gentle kiss goodbye. He had never seen the shy man so comfortable around a woman and hoped she wouldn't break his heart. His crew was quickly moving on a shuttle to go back to their own familiar sub. Lucy herself was taking the jump jet back with everyone else, telling Tim she had a field assignment for the next two weeks, but she would see him again. After their goodbyes, the woman turned to her cousin and the two hugged each other for a good long time, whispering in each other's ear. Finally they released each other, gave a kiss to the side of their cheeks, and left Mars and Nathan standing on the deck of the Macronesian ship.

"Thank you." Nathan said quietly as he walked up to her, aware he was the last UEO person on the ship.

"For what?" Mars looked perplexed.

"Would have drowned if you hadn't been on that bridge."

"Wish I could say it was altruistic, but I wanted to save my own ass just as much as you did yours, so not exactly a selfish act there."

"True." Nathan laughed with a smile. "You alright?"

"I'll be fine, couple weeks and I'll be back in the thick of things getting beat up again I'm sure. You?"

"The same."

"Doctor B, maybe you should stop looking for Bobby."

"What?" Her comment had been so sudden Nathan wasn't sure if he had heard right.

"You haven't seen him in twenty years. You and your crew come out of nowhere, the _SeaQuest_ in a cornfield, I think that probably would have gotten his attention. He knows you're alive, which means he doesn't want you finding him. May be that he has a reason."

"I can't stop Mars. I need to know that reason." Nathan was mournful now.

"Then I hope Bobby doesn't have to mourn you a second time. Captain." Mars was in military dress uniform now, the Colonel insignia gleaming bright in the sun, and she stood tall, her hand to her brow in a full salute.

"Colonel." Nathan realized his time there was done, it was time to return to the _SeaQuest_, and he returned the honor of the salute for the only time she had called him Captain.

_**One more upload and this will be finished I promise**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**And in conclusion...**  
><em>

* * *

><p><em>Sydney, Australia<em>

_March 13, 2034_

_12 Hours_ _after Macronesian cruiser _Tasmin_ left site of _St. Helens_ sinking_

Mars had been helicoptered from the cruiser _Tasmin_ to the presidential compound directly in Sydney. Once alone inside the residential quarters, Mars had stood in the middle of the expansive rooms, staring blankly. She had spent weeks on a cramped rust bucket with its people and noise, and had survived an attack that had lasted no more then six hours, but had felt like days. Now she stood in the quite of the plush mansion, the city noise not reaching beyond the expansive gardens and lawns. It was late and most of the staff were gone beyond a night assistant and security, not that she would have wanted company from any of the staff. Instead, Mars stepped into the scalding hot shower, trying to wash away the pain of the last day, wanting only to hear the rushing water block the voices in her head.

For the first time Mars took stock of the condition of her body. Her nose had been a clean break, minor really. The ribs where she had been kicked would heal in a couple weeks if she took it easy the doctor had said. Even Lucy had said that technically she hadn't even drowned, her throat had closed shut before water had entered her lungs and they had been able to open her airway before her pulse had stopped. It was of little comfort, at least death would have been quiet compared to the screams she kept remembering. She ached to hear her son's laugh instead.

Alex was at an opera for the night with some delegate from the ever revolving list of visiting countries. He had needed little more than confirmation she was alive before going about business. Mars hoped he would be gone well into the night talking and smoking cigars with whoever it was that had come to Australia to make an alliance, and hopefully the woman he took with him would hold his interest too. Yet as she slipped on a pair of underwear and ragged old grey sweatshirt with "Boston" in red across the front, she heard the clink of glass from the master suite outside the bath.

"I had hoped you would come to me tonight." Alexander Bourne spoke with his back to Mars as she walked into the bedroom, pouring a glass of scotch.

"Thought it would be rude to interrupt your night, especially in my current condition." Mars leaned against the doorway, bare legs below the sweatshirt that was a couple sizes too big.

"Would have been less rude than me leaving the Russian ambassador in the middle of the second act in order to make sure you were safely back."

"You knew I was just fine."

Finally he turned to face her. He sipped at his scotch, eyes smoldering as he looked at the younger woman.

"Yes, well, now we're here aren't we? And yet I hear that the P-Orion is once again at the bottom of the ocean and the whole cause of this catastrophe missing. I'm starting to wonder about my investment and encouraging you on this project, perhaps it is too much even for you."

"My ship broke up exactly how it was suppose to, your investment wasn't wasted. Call it a real life scenario. And whether we have the thing or not, we now know the Chaodai are closer to cloaking technology."

"What did happen to this satellite?"

"Last I saw it was lying next to its dead owner. Was told it had been left there, never had a chance to be brought up and secured. From the scans we saw, that part of the ship was ripped open in the torpedo blasts and strewn over the canyons. If it was even still intact there would be no way to find it at this point. The bright side is we may not have it, but neither does the UEO or the Chaodai."

"And the Chaodai will soon be short their scientists to try and create another. I've already sent Jefferson out."

"Without me!" She pushed herself off the doorframe, storming towards Bourne.

"You are in no condition to be cleaning up this mess. You tend to get sloppy when you're angry. I've decided you'll stay here for the next two weeks, rest, prepare for what is next."

"I was going to go to Africa for a week, to see my son…" Mars was cut off by the scotch glass flying past her head and shattering against the wall next to her.

Before she could react she felt Alex's hand wrap around her throat and she was pushed down onto the bed, his weight pinning her down.

"I am your commander, you do not tell me what you will or will not do!" He was furious. " This mission means more then anything else, including _our _son, and without you it cannot move forward. You should have been off that ship the moment you knew it was taken, but instead you stay to play the hero and to take commands from the UEO! You could have cost us everything. I own you Mars LeConte, I made you, not the UEO!" His hand squeezed, adding bruises to the red line along her throat.

Mars gasped for breath, choking once more as she felt the pressure increase. Mars tried to speak through the darkness rushing on her, but the words just came out in guttural sounds. Then the pressure was gone and her vision cleared. She felt the back of his hand brush her cheek, his body weight shifting as he brought his hips to hers.

"Good girl. You don't need any distractions. Just think Mars, in two weeks, the _SeaQuest_ will be mine, and in her captain's chair will be my god of war." Alexander whispered in his ex-wife's ear as he slid his hand up her bare thigh, felt her give in to him out of exhaustion, and he made up for the weeks away from her.

* * *

><p>"Captain, I think you should see this." Lucas fell in step with Nathan Bridger as he left Lonnie Henderson's quarters after a long talk.<p>

"Lucas, I'm not a captain anymore, and if _Captain_ Hudson hears that, I may be asked to leave sooner then expected." The two men walked down the quiet corridors of the _SeaQuest_ to Nathan's guest quarters.

"I don't know what else to call you." Lucas admitted.

"Nathan works quite well." He opened the door and indicated for the younger man to enter first.

Lucas was carrying his personal tablet computer and quickly made himself comfortable typing away.

"So you said Commander Keller died a couple years ago right?"

"That's what Mars said."

"Right, and I looked up all I could about his death. It's all the basics, all the articles written in eulogy and such. He did die in his sleep, a sudden heart attack that he probably never felt according to the autopsy doctor."

"There's worse ways to go." _Like drowning_, Nathan thought.

"Right, but here's where it gets interesting. I looked up the information about his funeral. Of course there was a big memorial and such, but there was also the smaller family burial at Arlington. Only a few pictures were published, but here." Lucas handed the tablet over to Nathan who sat on the edge of his bunk.

There were a few pictures from a _Times_ article. One showed Scott's only daughter Marcy at a podium in the middle of a speech, another the honor guard carrying the casket. It was the third that caught Nathan's attention. It was a candid shot with a caption that read "Family and close friends gather to mourn." Again Marcy and her three children were there, standing amidst a small group of people. Nathan didn't recognize most of the people, but he easily picked out Mars LeConte black dress matching her flowing black hair. Next to her, looking older and thinner, and a little more wary then the last time he had seen the man, stood Mars's father Tobias. The date was November 2030.

"That's not all either. I found the arriving flight Michael was on to the embassy. He was listed as an unaccompanied child to be picked up only by an embassy staff member. There was no woman with him identified as his mother."

"So what the embassy told me was wrong, but why?"

"That I don't know, but I checked the flight roster. Sitting across the aisle and one row back was?" Lucas knew the guess Nathan would say.

"Mars?"

"No."

"Who then?"

"Lucy Nunn."

* * *

><p>Lucy Nunn dropped from the last few rungs of the short ladder down into the cramped sub, making a smacking sound as she landed in her flip flops.<p>

"Going to break an ankle doing that one of these days." The deep voice said behind her as hands gently grabbed her waste.

"Momo, look at what I just survived. You really think a ladder is going to scare me. Do you know that most injuries from latters occur when-" She felt those hands lift as their owners knew she was safely on the ground again.

"You're babbling Doc." Momo said.

Lucy turned around and hugged the tall, muscular Dagger behind her.

"Gave us quite a scare." He released from the hug and began walking down the short corridors of their smuggling sub.

"Don't think you were too concerned when you gave my cousin tongue."

"It was mouth to mouth."

"She had started breathing again."

"Had to make sure ya know. He's in there." Momo gave a cocky grin, grabbed Lucy's duffle, and headed back the way he had come.

Inside the cramped Captain's Quarters, a man sat in dim light behind the Captain's desk. A scruffy beard of a couple weeks growth covered his face, yet even in his mid-forties barely any grey was showing. Deep lines formed around his eyes and mouth as he studied the heavy round satellite, now dented and broken on the desk, before looking up at Lucy with blue eyes, his features smoothing out as he smiled.

"Don't ever do that again." The man said, leaning back in the metal folding chair.

"Or you'll do what?" Lucy sat down on the edge of the desk, turning the picture frame sitting on the corner around to look at the young blond haired boy in the frame.

"Make sure you get a position in the middle of Iowa well away from anything dangerous."

"Iowa has tornadoes. Mars and your dad are ok."

"Of course they are, they had you there. I'm assuming this hasn't interrupted any rumored plans has it?"

"Nope. Can you believe so much death for such a little thing? Did you find it ok?" Lucy toyed with the broken pieces.

"Wars have been fought over less. And yes, the radio tag was sending loud and clear. Good thing you dumped it when you did, would never have found it if it went down with the boat. You know you came that close to ending our chance at this." He held up his thumb and pointer finger inches from each other.

"Don't worry. The _SeaQust_ is still on schedule to be at the way station which means Alexander Bourne is still on schedule to be there too. In two weeks the Macronesians will be stealing the flagship of the UEO with no one to stop them." Lucy grabbed the grungy Boston Red Sox hat off the man's head looking at it.

"And in two weeks we steal the _SeaQuest_ from the Macronesians."

"I do love irony. You know Bobby, the Red Sox haven't won a series since 2013, and you were technically dead that year." She placed the hat back on his head backwards.

"Hey now! True fans don't abandon their teams during dry spells or in fake death. Don't you have work? Get out of here." He threw a wad of paper at her.

"Oh I've got a video date instead of work." Lucy said heading for the hatch.

"With who?!"

"Lt. Tim O'Neil."

"Is that…?" He made circular motions around his eyes indicating glasses.

"Yes."

"Sweet little Lucy Nunn finally finds a guy as geeky as her huh? Does this mean no more bum boyfriends? " The man jokingly mocked.

"My taste in men is not that bad!"

"Yes it is."

"At least I didn't marry Alexander Bourne." Lucy pointed back heading for the door.

"Ya well I'm sure your cousin who is so apt to keep her opinions to herself is thrilled with you hooking up with a _SeaQuest _officer. Go get to your date, that's an order." The man looked back down at the sphere as Lucy walked towards the hatch before turning around and giving a salute.

"Yes sir, Captain Bridger, sir."

_**FINISHED! If you made it this far, thank you.**_


End file.
